The National Assembly has withdrawn the passage of the 2025 budget due to significant errors in allocations.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives rescinded their decision on the appropriation bill passed on February 13, to correct discrepancies in capital and recurrent expenditures.
Despite the corrections, the total budget remains at N54.9 trillion. However, the capital expenditure has been reduced by more than N500 billion, while recurrent spending has increased by the same amount. Following these adjustments, the capital allocation now stands at N23.439 trillion, while recurrent expenditure has risen to N13.588 trillion. These figures differ from what was initially approved by lawmakers.
The decision to amend the budget followed a motion by Senator Adeola Olamilekan, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Appropriations, and Abubakar Kabir, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The motion was easily agreed to by lawmakers who admitted that the errors needed urgent correction to ensure a more accurate distribution of resources.
When the budget was initially passed last week, N13.064 trillion had been allocated for recurrent expenditures, while capital projects received N23.963 trillion. The first breakdown of the N54.99 trillion proposal also included N3.645 trillion for statutory transfers and N14.317 trillion for debt servicing. The fiscal deficit stood at N13.08 trillion, with a deficit-to-GDP ratio of 1.52 per cent.
