The National Assembly anticipate the presence of President Bola Tinubu at a joint session tomorrow, Friday, December 19, to present the 2026 Appropriation Bill.
The presentation, scheduled for 2:00 pm, was conveyed in a notice issued on Wednesday by the Office of the Clerk to the National Assembly.
According to the notice, all accredited persons are required to be at their duty posts by 11:00 am on the day of the presentation, as access into the National Assembly Complex will be restricted thereafter for security reasons.
The notice, signed by the Secretary, Human Resources and Staff Development, Essien Eyo Essien, on behalf of the Clerk to the National Assembly, urged all concerned to ensure strict compliance with the arrangements ahead of the President’s address.
The 2026 budget is projected at ₦54.4 trillion, in line with the approved 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu has asked the National Assembly to repeal and re-enact the 2024 Appropriation Act.
Naijaonpoint reports that the request was conveyed in separate letters to the Senate and the House of Representatives on Wednesday and read during plenary by the presiding officers.
The bill, titled Appropriation (Repeal and Re-enactment Bill 2) 2024, proposes a total expenditure of ₦43.56 trillion.
In a letter dated December 16, 2025, the President said the bill seeks authorisation for the issuance of a total sum of ₦43.56 trillion from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for the year ending December 31, 2025.
A breakdown of the proposal shows ₦1.74 trillion for statutory transfers, ₦8.27 trillion for debt service, ₦11.27 trillion for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, and ₦22.28 trillion for capital expenditure and development fund contributions.
Tinubu said the proposed legislation was aimed at ending the practice of running multiple budgets concurrently, while ensuring “reasonable, indeed unprecedentedly high, capital performance rates” on the 2024 and 2025 capital budgets.
He explained that the bill would also provide a transparent and constitutionally grounded framework for consolidating and appropriating critical and time-sensitive expenditures undertaken in response to emergency situations, national security concerns and other urgent needs.
According to him, the proposal strengthens fiscal discipline and accountability by mandating that funds be released strictly for purposes approved by the National Assembly, restricting virement without prior legislative approval, and setting conditions for corrigenda in cases of genuine implementation errors.
The bill has passed first and second readings in the House of Representatives and has been referred to the Committee on Appropriations for further legislative action.
According to Daily Trust, some analysts have raised concerns that extending budgets and rolling capital expenditures into later years could lead to duplication of allocations, confusion in project prioritisation and potential mismanagement.
They warned that such outcomes could further weaken economic performance and erode investor confidence.
Expert Calls For Holistic Budget Reform
Reacting, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, called for a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s budget process to end the long-standing cycle of rollovers, weak capital spending and chronic non-implementation.
He said the President’s proposal on budget realignment should be seen as a corrective step aimed at regularising years of uneven and incomplete budget execution, rather than abandoning previously approved projects.
According to Yusuf, Nigeria’s budget challenges largely stem from unrealistic assumptions, especially on revenue projections, which often result in poor implementation and mounting arrears.
He argued that instead of discarding unexecuted projects, the government should consolidate outstanding commitments, clear the backlog and re-present them within a more coherent and credible fiscal framework.
“This approach offers an opportunity to reset the system and finally break the recurring cycle of capital budget rollovers that weakens development impact and erodes confidence in public finance,” he said.
Yusuf stressed that meaningful progress would require holistic reform rather than ad hoc adjustments, noting that expenditure must be aligned strictly with credible revenue expectations and overly optimistic forecasts avoided.
He also identified rising debt service obligations as a major constraint on budget performance, warning that heavy first-line deductions for debt repayment continue to shrink fiscal space and crowd out capital expenditure.
Sustainable debt management, he said, is essential to restore flexibility and protect development spending.
While noting that the Appropriation Act carries full legal weight, Yusuf cautioned that compliance would only be effective when budgets are built on realistic foundations.