BudgIT, a civic-tech organization promoting transparency and accountability in Nigeria, has criticized the proposed extension of the federal government’s 2023 Budget implementation period, along with the 2023 Supplementary Budget, to December 31, 2024.
The 2023 Budget of N21.83 trillion, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2023, was initially designed to run from January to December.
However, with the drafting of the 2024 Appropriation Bill, the 2023 Supplementary Budget of N2.17 trillion was passed by the National Assembly and assented to by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu just two months before the end of the 2023 fiscal year.
The National Assembly had previously extended the implementation of these budgets to June 30, 2024, and has now further extended it to December 31, 2024.
In a statement released in Abuja, Mr. Gabriel Okeowo, BudgIT’s Country Director, expressed concern over this development:
“More worrisome is the fact that the Federal Government is currently drafting another 2024 Supplementary Budget, which it intends to implement alongside the 2023 Approved Budget, 2023 Supplementary Budget, and 2024 Approved Budget, thereby resulting in the simultaneous implementation of four budgets—an anomaly with no precedence.
Standard practice should be that projects not catered to within a fiscal year are rolled over to the budget of a new fiscal year.”
Mr. Okeowo highlighted the potential consequences of this approach:
“The concurrent implementation of four budgets will lead to severe budget credibility issues, as revenues projected in 2024 alone would most likely be used in implementing four different budgets, negatively impacting service delivery in critical social sectors and the provision of essential public infrastructure.”
“If allowed to be implemented, the practice would convert Nigeria’s annual budget into a biennial one, a practice neither provided for by the 1999 Constitution nor the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.”
Okeowo further pointed out that BudgIT had identified many frivolous items in the 2023 Approved Budget and 2023 Supplementary Budget that would compete with essential projects in the 2024 Budget for the limited resources available to the Federal Government.
Return to January-December Cycle
BudgIT called on the National Assembly to return the budget cycle to the January-December period, urging a return to disciplined fiscal practices.
“To this end, we call on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to amend the complications of this convoluted budgeting system and return to a disciplined January to December Budget Calendar.
We also urge the Federal Government to identify and implement only the projects and programs that align with Nigeria’s overarching development goals, reduce inequality, and improve the lives of citizens, the bulk of whom are multidimensionally poor.”
BudgIT noted that Nigeria briefly adhered to the January-December budget calendar in 2019 but has since regressed.
From 2020 to date, the implementation period for capital budgets has routinely been extended beyond 12 calendar months—a practice that BudgIT argues negates the principle of the annuality of public budgets.
