The capital component of the 2024 budget has again been extended by the Senate to December 31, 2025, from June 30, 2025.
This action was taken by the upper chamber of the National Assembly at its plenary on Tuesday, meaning the country is running two appropriation acts at the same time, as the 2025 budget is currently effective.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Mr Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, while presenting a bill titled A Bill for an Act to Amend the 2024 Appropriation Act to further extend the Capital Components of the Act from 30th June 2025 to 31st December 2025″ (SB. 854) today, asked his colleagues to extend the implementation of the previous year’s budget to allow sufficient time for procurement processes, disbursements, and actual project execution.
In his contribution, the Senate Chief Whip, Mr Mohammed Tahir Monguno, backed the extension but called for a review of the Finance Ministry’s “bottom-to-top” disbursement policy, arguing that it had introduced bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape that stall effective budget execution.
On his part, Mr Abdul Ningi decried the repetitive nature of the problem, calling for a formal investigation by the Appropriations Committee to explain continued implementation failures.
A former Senate Leader, Mr Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, accused the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of bottlenecking payments and stalling project execution even for contractors who had completed work.
“The credibility of this Government is getting very very down. Workers whose salaries have been increased, say we have given them 35 thousand Naira additional money and we have created a new minimum wage of N70,000 but nobody has seen anything.
“I think for the purpose of its own credibility this Government has to come and explain to Nigerians what is happening because now we are being taken for a ride,” he said, cautioning that continued mismanagement not only risks government credibility but also raises doubts over the federal government’s ability to fulfil its budgetary promises.
“The credibility of this government is getting down, he lamented. This budget should have been implemented and done by December 31, 2024, but right now, the activities of the Government are stalled. The system adopted for payment has woefully failed,” he said.
The Deputy Senate President, Mr Barau Jibrin, who presided over the plenary, confirmed that the Committees on Finance and Appropriations had engaged the Finance Minister and other stakeholders but hinted that the matter may now warrant direct engagement with President Bola Tinubu.
He, however, informed his colleagues that, “If the budget is not extended, projects will be abandoned. But we’re nearing the point where we may have to escalate this to the President himself.”
The bill passed through first, second, and third readings in a single session today under a suspended rule procedure. The lawmakers passed it unanimously by voice vote after clause-by-clause consideration.