The Federal Government has announced plans to transfer outstanding projects and expenditure commitments under the 2026 budget into the 2027 fiscal year, as part of measures to end the practice of implementing multiple national budgets simultaneously.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja during the launch of the October 2026 edition of the World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update.
His announcement follows the approval by the Senate and House of Representatives of the extension of the capital component of the 2025 budget to December 31, 2026, giving Ministries, Departments and Agencies additional time to execute capital projects captured in the 2025 Appropriation Act. It is the fourth extension of the budget’s capital implementation period.
Oyedele acknowledged weaknesses in the country’s budget preparation and implementation processes, particularly unrealistic revenue projections and the repeated extension of capital budgets beyond their original fiscal years.
“Whatever is left of 2026, we’re transferring into 2027, not running two budgets,” the minister said. “We acknowledge that we can do budget better. We shouldn’t be running multiple budgets at the same time. We shouldn’t have projections for revenue where the outcome is 40 per cent or 60 per cent. We acknowledge that.”
He said the government was working with the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and the Budget Office of the Federation to introduce a more realistic budgeting framework from 2027. The reforms would address the accumulation of outstanding expenditure commitments across successive fiscal years, which has complicated budget implementation and weakened the credibility of government spending plans.
According to the minister, the government intends to resolve the remaining 2024 budget commitments and address outstanding expenditure under the 2025 and 2026 budgets before adopting a more streamlined approach. Future revenue and expenditure projections would be based on actual fiscal performance rather than assumptions carried forward from previous budgets.
Oyedele assured Nigerians that the changes would become evident in the preparation and implementation of the 2027 budget. “What I’m saying to the Nigerian people is that you will see the difference from next year,” he stated.
On the timeline for presenting the 2027 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly, he said the government intended to submit the proposal before the commencement of the new fiscal year but could not guarantee the legislative timetable.
Beyond budget reforms, Oyedele said the government’s fiscal strategy would prioritise human development, infrastructure and measures to stimulate private investment. He explained that the administration’s tax reforms were designed to expand economic activity and increase the number of productive taxpayers rather than impose additional taxes on existing businesses and households.
“We need more and bigger taxpayers, not more new or higher taxes,” he said, arguing that stronger economic growth would improve government revenue while creating opportunities for employment and higher incomes.
The minister also maintained that Nigeria’s economic reforms had strengthened macroeconomic stability, although their benefits had yet to translate fully into improvements in household welfare. “Economic stability is not the destination for us. It’s the foundation,” he said, expressing confidence that growth would exceed the World Bank’s revised projection of 4.3 per cent for 2026.
Earlier, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mathew Verghis, called for stronger budget credibility, public investment management and expenditure controls across the federation. He said Nigeria’s macroeconomic reforms had substantially increased revenues available to the federal and state governments, but improved fiscal resources must translate into better development outcomes.
Verghis explained that state governments had benefited significantly from increased federation transfers following the removal of petrol subsidies, foreign exchange reforms and improvements in tax administration. However, he observed that most states had increased spending on transport infrastructure and reduced domestic debt, while expenditure on education, healthcare and social protection had grown more slowly.
Source: Punch. This story was rewritten from the original report.
Image: Punch
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