Inputs on budget and budget implementation
Following the submission of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for 2026-2028 on December 3, 2026 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the expedited deliberations which were given to the documents submitted, it is clear that contrary to the stipulations in the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 as provided in Section 11(b) which requires that MTEF/FSP be submitted at least four months before the beginning of the new fiscal year, the presentation by Mr. President was late.
Thereafter, the budget estimates are submitted a few months later, i.e., by convention in October or November at the latest, to allow enough time for the National Assembly to conduct exhaustive deliberations. The current administration has not, like in previous years, 2024 and 2025, yet abided by the stipulations of this all-important Act.
The implication here is that the discussion on the MTEF/ FSP, which should form the bedrock on which the fiscal year 26 budget and indeed all budgets in Nigeria are prepared, could not be subjected to the same rigour that the 8th and the 9th Assembly subjected the MTEF/ FSP to during the previous administration. Consequently, this absence of rigour and thoroughness will feed into the discussions of FY 26 Budget Estimates because of inadequate time for in-depth deliberations.
The crafters of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 knew what was at stake, and therefore, made provisions for ample time to submit the MTEF/FSP and Budget Estimates to ensure enough time for proper deliberations by NASS, MDAs, and all stakeholders to ensure that the document is properly enriched and implementable. Abridging the time for submissions and deliberations in this manner has led to sub-optimal outcomes, as we have seen in the very poor implementation of capital Budget across the MDAs in 2024 and 2025. Indeed, the first budget prepared by the Tinubu Administration in 2024, though signed on January 1, 2024, was only completed subsequently. Several Committees of both the House of Representatives and the Senate continued deliberations to finalize the budget weeks after the budget was signed, which made it untidy, and, not surprisingly, the implementation of the FY 2024 was beset with several problems and had to be extended many times until December 2025.
Handling budget preparations in this manner does not bode well for an administration that seeks to signpost good and inclusive governance, transparency, accountability, and a new way of doing business. The 2025 budget did not escape the same compressed timeline in its preparation. Equally, there are already ominous signs for the FY 2026 Budget preparation as the MTEF/ FSP was presented on December 3, 2025, and the budget estimates was laid in the 3rd week of December, just before the holidays. This timeline is extremely tight, and the NASS cannot be expected to do justice to this budget if Mr. President is expected to sign the document on January 1, 2026.
If the budget is rushed under this compressed timeline, its implementation may suffer a similar outcome as the 2024 and 2025 budgets. A budget is an instrument for implementing development plans. In the case of the Tinubu Administration, it is difficult to see how the Renewed Hope Agenda can be implemented. If consistently, the budgets duly approved by NASS and signed into law by the President are not being implemented appropriately, then the so-called dividend of democracy, as encapsulated in the Renewed Hope Agenda, will remain elusive to citizens who voted for President Tinubu.
A departure from the previous APC government
before the advent of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in Office 2015-2019, the government of President Goodluck Jonathan struggled to meet the timeline of the January -December cycle. This pattern continued during President Buhari’s First term. However, in the last three years of President Buhari’s second term in office, the government was able to restore the January-December budget cycle. Even though, there were also roll-overs of the previous year’s budget to ensure full implementation of the capital projects, June of the succeeding year was the latest time for such roll-overs of the implementation, but never to the end of the year. Implementing a budget in this manner makes it exceedingly difficult to measure the performance and hence the impact of the budget in any form, and diminish the efficacy of the budget as an instrument of implementing development programmes overall.
Rolling over of unused capital projects for FY 2025 into 2026
The instructions to roll over unused capital budget for FY 2025, as contained in the circular dated is inevitable because the capital projects that could not be funded in FY 25 which are still desired, cannot conceivably be implemented in the time remaining in fiscal year 2025, so rolling them over to 2026 was the logical way out.
