Abuja: Some economic stakeholders have expressed worry over the delay in the preparation of the 2026 budget. They noted with concern the delay in presenting the 2026 appropriation bill to the legislature for consideration. President Bola Tinubu finally presented a N58.47 trillion budget for the 2026 fiscal year to a joint session of the National Assembly on Dec. 19, 2025, ruling out the possibility of a January to December budget cycle.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the breakdown of the budget proposal shows that Security and Defence received the highest allocation of N5.41 trillion, followed by Infrastructure with N3.56 trillion, Education with N3.52 trillion, and Health with N2.48 trillion. The budget is anchored on projected revenue of N34.33 trillion, estimated expenditure of N58.18 trillion, and N15.52 trillion set aside for debt servicing.
A renowned Economist, Prof. Ken Ife, advised the Federal Government to repeal the 2025 Appropriation Act and consolidate the new 2026 budget. Ife, the Lead Consultant on Private Sector Development to the ECOWAS Commission, said that the country would be taken 10 years back by budget indiscipline and complete disregard of the Planning Law (FRA 2007). He said that the budgeting benchmark was raised to an unreasonable and self-defeatist and unrealistic level of 75 dollars per barrel in 2025.
According to Eze Onyekpere, Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the financial year is between January and December in line with the constitution. Onyekpere said that if the National Assembly wanted another framework, they must amend the law, not shift dates arbitrarily. ‘A financial year is 12 months. Everybody understands this. Even the Appropriation Act says you must not expend money after Dec. 31. What is happening now is unconstitutional,’ he said.
Another economist, Sanya Adejokun, said that the development was an aberration. According to Adejokun, a budget is supposed to run for one year. If there is a need, you introduce a supplementary budget, but still within that year. ‘Now, we have three budgets running side by side. Even civil servants in the budget office find it difficult to say which one is being implemented.’
Co-founder of BudgIT Foundation, Seun Onigbinde, described the budgeting process as chaotic and uncoordinated, saying the system has completely broken down and lost direction. Onigbinde said that the Federal Government had continued to extend multiple budgets beyond their calendar years, creating confusion in project execution and financial reporting.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, described the 2026 budget as better structured than previous ones (2024 and 2025). Yusuf said that its assumptions were more conservative and realistic than those of 2025. He, however, said that the oil price benchmark of 64.85 dollars per barrel and production target still appear optimistic given Nigeria’s historical performance.
Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives, cautioned against unrealistic projections in the 2026 budget. Abbas said overly optimistic assumptions could undermine fiscal discipline and weaken public confidence in the budgeting. ‘If 2025 was a year of adjustment and learning, 2026 must be a year of fulfilment.’
Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said that it was unclear if the 2026 budget would succeed. According to the analysts, while parts of the budget reflect realism, aspects like strong revenue growth projections seem optimistic. ‘Projected economic growth is strong at four per cent in 2026, slightly down from 4.5 per cent in 2025.’
President Tinubu said that the 2026 budget would be guided by better revenue mobilisation through efficiency, transparency, and compliance, and better spending by prioritising projects that can be completed, measured, and felt by citizens. He said that 2026 would be a year of stronger discipline in budget execution.