NASS Revises 2025 Budget, Reduces Capital Expenditure By Over N500bn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Assembly has made corrections to certain line items in the 2025 Appropriation Bill passed by both the Senate and the House of Representa­tives last week, following the discovery of errors in the cap­ital and recurrent expenditure categories.

Although the overall budget size remains at N54.99 trillion, the capital expenditure has been reduced by over N500 bil­lion, while the same amount has been redirected to increase recurrent expenditure.

At plenary sessions on Tuesday, both chambers of the National Assembly adjusted the figures for various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Some adjustments led to an increase in allocations, while others saw a downward revision.

Francis Waive, Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business (APC: Delta), who presented the motion for the rescission of the previously ap­proved session items, explained that the decision was prompted by errors identified in the figures initially passed by the commit­tee.

He emphasised that while the overall figure of N54.99 trillion, the statutory transfer of N3.64 trillion, and the N14.32 trillion remained unchanged, certain allocations were revised. Specif­ically, the recurrent (non-debt) expenditure was adjusted to N13.56 trillion, and the capital budget was set at N23.44 trillion.

The revision also impacted budget estimates for several key agencies, including the Minis­tries of Defence and Police Af­fairs, the National Pension Com­mission, Universities Pensions, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (covering civilian pensions), and the Pension Transition Arrange­ment Directorate, among others.

Waive further revealed that several key government bodies, including the Presidency, the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Office of the Secre­tary to the Government of the Federation, as well as the Fed­eral Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security, Works, La­bour and Employment, Trans­portation, Innovation, Science and Technology, Education, Environment, Health, and So­cial Welfare, among others, had their budget proposals increased for the 2025 fiscal year.

The Delta lawmaker empha­sised that it is the responsibility of the House to address the dis­crepancies identified during the compilation process by the Joint Committee. He assured that the necessary revisions and even­tual passage would not impact the overall budget size of N54.99 trillion.