It might sound unusualb but Nigeria is currently operating under three simultaneous budgets: the 2024 Main Appropriation Act, a 2024 Supplementary Budget, and the freshly signed 2025 Appropriation Act. This fiscal juggling act has sparked public debatebbut the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu, confirms it’s fully legal and strategic, not chaotic.
1. The Set-Up: What Are These Budgets?
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2024 Main Budget
Enacted in January 2024, this budget remains the legal baseline for government spending through the end of the year—especially for capital projects, mandatory expenditures, and contracts tied to 2024 codes. -
2024 Supplementary Budget
Introduced mid-year, this top-up budget targets unplanned needs—like security crises, humanitarian emergencies, or economic shocks. Economically, it’s an extension of the main budget to keep essential programs funded. -
2025 Budget
Signed into law before the close of 2024 to preserve the January–December cycle, it’s already being implemented. However, that rollout overlaps with the tail end of 2024’s commitments.
2. Why This Overlap Happens
Nigeria isn’t unique in this fiscal structure. Countries like India, Indonesia, and Kenya manage similar overlaps because of three core factors:
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Procurement delays that push spending into the next year
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Unspent but committed funds that must still be disbursed
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Multi-year and donor-funded projects that naturally span across fiscal cycles
Rather than seeing budget extensions as errors, they’re legal mechanisms—embedded in the Finance Act, Appropriation Acts, and Central Bank circulars—to allow rollovers, cash-flow bridging, and transparent accounting.
3. Flexibility Amid Reform
Dr. Yakubu argues this setup is not a sign of disorder but institutional agility. The country is transitioning to a performance-led budgeting framework, where:
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The 2025 budget gets rolled out actively,
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While 2024 and supplementary funds are responsibly closed out,
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All within a transparent, legally sound fiscal system.
This dual-track approach ensures public projects continue undisrupted—even when administrative or logistical delays occur.
4. The Real Challenge: Transparency and Coordination
It’s not the presence of multiple budgets that raises eyebrows—it’s how they’re managed. Ghana and the UK have faced scrutiny when supplementary funds weren’t properly accounted for or reconciled with existing appropriations. Dr. Yakubu emphasizes that Nigeria’s focus should be on clear coordination, public disclosure, and auditable records to maintain trust.
Nigeria’s triple-budget situation isn’t fiscal mismanagement—it’s fiscal flexibility in action. By supporting rollovers, enabling real-world project execution, and preparing budgets in advance, the country is navigating complex financial terrain with legal backing.
The priority now? Use this multi-budget system as a stepping stone toward a more agile, accountable, and performance-driven public finance structure—one that delivers value without losing sight of transparency.