BudgIT, a t civic-tech organisation promoting transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s public finance, has raised significant concerns over the Federal Government’s 2025 Budget, describing its formulation as legally questionable and lacking adequate disclosure, particularly regarding its revenue framework.
The civil society group recalled that the Presidency initially submitted a proposed expenditure of N47.9 trillion, which it later revised to N54.2 trillion through a presidential letter to the National Assembly, citing increased revenue expectations. On receipt of the letter, the National Assembly further increased this figure to N54.9 trillion, without publishing any accompanying macroeconomic or fiscal analysis to justify the adjustment of the Appropriation Bill’s provisions.
According to the group, the changes fall short of the requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007, which mandates that aggregate expenditure must not exceed estimated aggregate revenue plus a deficit of no more than 3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Specifically, BudgIT cited Section 12 of the Act which stipulates that: “Aggregate expenditure and the aggregate amount appropriated by the National Assembly for each financial year shall not be more than the estimated aggregate revenue plus a deficit not exceeding 3% of the estimated Gross Domestic Product or any sustainable percentage as may be determined by the National Assembly for each financial year.” Based on the Budget Office’s GDP projection of N338 trillion, total spending should not have surpassed N51.95 trillion.
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It noted that the current appropriation exceeded that limit by more than N3 trillion, raising concerns about fiscal discipline and legal compliance.
The CSO further stated that also troubling was the government’s continued refusal to publish a detailed revenue breakdown for the 2025 fiscal year.
It maintained that while references had been made to certain revenue sources, no comprehensive data has been released to allow for independent scrutiny, adding that compounding the opacity is the fact that the latest available federal Budget Implementation Report covers only the second quarter of 2024, despite formal requests made to the Budget Office of the Federation for more recent updates.
Commenting on the flaws in the budget, BudgIT’s Group Head of Research and Policy Advisory, Vahyala Kwaga, stresses that these patterns signal a regression from the standards of fiscal transparency and accountability that Nigeria has worked to establish over the past decade.
He explained: “Transparency is not a favour to citizens; it is a constitutional and moral obligation of the government. The 2025 budget, as it stands, fails the basic tests of legality, transparency, and economic prudence. At a time when Nigeria faces rising debt, inflationary pressures, and critical development challenges, the importance of fiscal clarity cannot be overstated. Citizens have the right to know how public funds are sourced and allocated, and the government has the duty to provide such information.
The CSO noted that these concerns were far from trivial but they pointed to a worrying shift towards arbitrariness and opacity in the presidency’s fiscal conduct, cautioning that if left unchecked, such actions risk undermining Nigeria’s significant gains in institutionalising transparency and compliance within its public finance framework.
It, therefore, charged the Presidency to uphold the principles of transparency, due process, and legal compliance in the management of public funds, and also urged the citizens, civil society organisations, the private sector, and the international community to collectively demand the immediate publication of the full revenue framework underpinning the Federal Government’s 2025 budget.
