Photo Credit: The Punch
2025-12-24 06:00:00
According to Punch, Nigeria’s National Assembly has moved to extend the implementation window for the 2025 budget into early 2026 as lawmakers debate how to avoid a repeat of “multiple budgets running at the same time” and the planning distortions that follow.
The shift effectively keeps the 2025 appropriation alive beyond the traditional December-end cycle, giving MDAs a wider runway to complete ongoing procurement, releases, and capital execution that typically slip late in the year.
The extension is also being framed as a legislative response to recurring delays in budget passage and cash-backing—an attempt to align “budget life” with actual spending realities rather than calendar formality.
In practical terms, the change sets a new reference point for ministries and contractors: the 2025 budget is not “dead” on December 31, which could reduce abandoned projects and rushed year-end spending.
Reuters reported the plan was intended to “bring an end to the practice of running multiple budgets concurrently,” while TVC News described it as extending the 2025 budget’s life “to March 31, 2026.”
Echotitbits take: This is an admission that Nigeria’s budget cycle still struggles with realism—late passage, slow releases, and weak project discipline. Watch for whether cash releases and procurement timelines are also adjusted; otherwise, lawmakers may simply be postponing the same execution bottlenecks into Q1 2026.
Source: The Punch — December 24, 2025 (https://punchng.com/budget-crisis-nass-extends-2025-fiscal-year-to-march/)
The Punch 2025-12-24
