The Senate on Thursday asked Wale Edun, Minister of Finance, Samsudeen Ogunjimi, Accountant-General of the Federation, and Tanimu Yakubu, Director-General of the Budget Office, to produce a thorough performance report on the 2024 budget within two weeks.
Analysts are concerned that the decision may delay President Bola Tinubu’s presentation of the 2026 fiscal blueprint to the National Assembly.
The Senate’s Committee on Finance warned that the report must include predictions for the capital component of the 2025 budget before the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) for 2026-2029 may be discussed.
The order was issued by the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (Niger East), following a closed-door discussion with the three top officials that lasted one and a half hours.
The MTEF/FSP is a significant fiscal planning document that serves as the foundation for Nigeria’s annual budget.
It describes the federal government’s macroeconomic assumptions, revenue predictions, spending objectives, and debt management techniques over a three-year period.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the National Assembly to endorse the document before the President can deliver the next budget.
Senate gives NNPCL three weeks to respond to N210tn audit queries
Senate approves Tinubu’s $21bn loan
Musa emphasized, however, that the Senate would not discuss the MTEF/FSP for 2026-2029 until the requisite documents were submitted on October 23.
“The expectations we are having are for the ministry to, as a matter of urgency, bring the MTEF for 2026 to 2029. The minister has briefed us, and we have collectively agreed that we are making progress, but we need to make more progress,” Musa told journalists after the session.
“We have heard from the Accountant-General and the Director-General of Budget on where we are with the budgets—the payments so far released and warrants signed—as well as the 2025 authority to incur expenditure for agencies to be able to execute their capital projects.
“We have all agreed that we want documented evidence of the performance of 2024 and our expectations for the 2025 budget before we start talking about the MTEF for 2026. The Honourable Minister of Finance has agreed to oblige us with that progress report, and we will reconvene on October 23,” he added.
Before the meeting began, committee members were presented with contradicting budget performance reports from the federal government’s economic team.
While Finance Minister Wale Edun asserted that the capital components of the 2024 and 2025 budgets were being implemented with “high performance,” Tanimu Yakubu, the Director-General of the Budget Office, presented a more dismal picture.
According to Yakubu, the budget projections for both fiscal years were mainly unmet due to global and domestic shocks.
“We have indeed had a turbulent year—one in which most of the assumptions underpinning the 2024 and 2025 budgets turned out differently from projections. Oil revenue, assumed at $75 per barrel, fell short by between $10 and $15 due to global price fluctuations.
“Inflation also rose beyond projections, affecting borrowing costs and debt service performance, which significantly exceeded targets. Furthermore, the unforeseen fiscal implications of the Petroleum Industry Act (2022) have compounded our challenges.
“Under the Act, 30 percent of gross oil revenue and 30 percent of oil and gas profits are retained for upstream operations, while the Federal Government also bears the NNPC’s operating costs.
“This has reduced the Federation Account allocation by nearly 70 percent of what used to accrue. In addition, crude oil output has been lower than projected in the MTEF approved by the National Assembly,” he said.
The Senate’s insistence on a rigorous performance evaluation coincides with mounting fiscal pressures, diminishing oil revenue, and rising debt payment expenses, all of which could complicate the development of the 2026-2029 economic strategy.
