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By Eze Onyekpere
The capital budget is that portion of the budget that touches the lives and existential realities of the majority of the population. It is from the capital votes that roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, airports, water and sanitation, agricultural facilities and inputs, etc., are built, rehabilitated and improved. While recurrent votes focus on running the administration, capital votes tend to improve human and infrastructural capital and lay the foundation for development, economic growth and improvements of the human condition. Against the background of the foregoing, this discourse reviews federal capital budget implementation since the Tinubu presidency, especially in the light of the further extension of the implementation of the 2025 capital votes to November 2026.
A typical Appropriation Act at the federal level starts in section 1 with the issue and appropriation of (a certain sum of money) from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for the year in question. It proceeds to order the release of the money for the purposes stated therein and within the year in issue and generally states that no part of the amount aforesaid shall be released from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation after the end of the year mentioned in subsection (1) of this section. These provisions are usually in tandem with the Financial Year Act and the interpretative S.318 of the Constitution in defining the financial year as the period between January 1 to December 31 in any given year. No part of the amount appropriated is to be released from the Consolidated Revenue after the end of the financial year. Financial year is constitutionally defined to mean any period of twelve months beginning on the first day of January in any year or such other date as the National Assembly may prescribe.
At the 2026 federal budget defence sessions, minister after minister told the National Assembly that they either got zero releases or a paltry less than 1% of their appropriated capital votes for the 2025 financial year. The ministry of health got N36m out of a vote of N218bn; ministry of transport – only N2.5bn out of N265.7bn vote.
The 2023 federal capital votes were carried over into 2024 and 2024 capital votes carried over to 2025. Now, 2025 capital votes have been carried over into 2026. At some point, about three capital votes were being implemented at the same time leading to fiscal confusion, accountability and transparency challenges. The President had assured Nigerians during the presentation of the 2026 federal budget before the National Assembly that 2025 capital votes carried over into 2026 will be fully implemented by the end of the first quarter in March 2026. He even stated that policy innovations would be introduced to ensure that this is the last time capital votes would be carried over into the new year. As such, we would virtually start 2026 budget implementation on a clean slate.
Prior to this development, the Budget Office of the Federation in the 2026 Budget Call Circular had directed ministries, departments and agencies of government to upload 70% of their 2025 FGN capital budget to continue in financial year 2026. All such rollover and uploads must be in line with the immediate needs of the country as well as government’s development priorities. From our review of the 2026 capital votes pending before NASS, all MDAs complied with this directive and there was a carryover of most 2025 projects. The implication of the foregoing is that what is carried over for implementation before end of March 2026 is less than 30% of 2025 capital votes.
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Media reports indicate that the Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr. Shamseldeen Babatunde Ogunjimi, during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Thursday February 19th announced that the 30% component of the 2025 budget is now scheduled to run until November 30, 2026 and implementation will start by the first week of March 2026. This revelation raises a lot of issues and challenges. The first issue is an enquiry on what necessitated this further extension of a mere 30% of the 2025 budget. Why the extension? Does the federal government have adequate financial resources to implement the carryover? If there is no money to pay for the projects, what happened to all the resources that accrued through taxes and oil revenue in 2025? What happened to the savings from fuel subsidy removal? Did President Bola Ahmed Tinubu lie to Nigerians that we had exceeded the full year non-oil revenue target for 2025 by September of that year? Is poor capital budget implementation a capacity problem rather than a revenue challenge?
An answer to some of these posers may be found in this statement from the Director of Funds, Steve Ehikhamenor, at the same occasion to wit: “This extension aims to rectify the implementation delays caused by previous revenue shortfalls, moving away from the overlapping budget cycles of recent years to a more organized fiscal framework.” The Accountant-General had earlier told the National Assembly that disbursements can only be done if the funds are available “because I must have the funds before I can disburse them”. Further, media statements credited to Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication to President Bola Tinubu, Sunday Dare states that the Federal Government has commenced payments for outstanding 2024 capital projects. FG will fully implement the capital components of both the 2024 and 2025 budgets by March 31, 2026 implying that there are still carryovers from 2024 federal budget. This March 31 deadline has been overtaken by statements from the appropriate authorities.
The foregoing seems to suggest that there is no money for the disbursing authorities to disburse to MDAs. However, it fails to provide answers to what happened to accrued revenue. In December 2025, when the administration sought to brief Nigerians on revenue accruals, there was a wide gulf between the President’s position and that of the Minister of Finance leading to a confusion in the polity.
If we have a deadline of November 2026 for the full implementation of the 2025 capital budget, when will the implementation of the 2026 votes start? We are almost at the end of February and there is no approved budget for the year emanating from late submission of the proposals by the President.
In the final analysis, the President, as an elected leader, owes Nigerians an account and explanations about what happened to accrued revenue. If capital votes are not implemented, as in the extant case, the President is simply using his mandate and tax payers sweat to pay himself and the bureaucracy while doing nothing for the security and welfare of the people. Mr. President, we need an account and detailed explanations.
