President Bola Tinubu’s government is planning to spend N8.97tn of its projected N49.70tn budget on defence and security and infrastructure in 2025, The PUNCH has learnt.
Tinubu on Wednesday presented the 2025 budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly, outlining an ambitious N49.70tn spending plan titled “Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity.”
The budget prioritises defence, infrastructure, and human capital development, with a projected deficit of N13.39tn to be financed through borrowing.
Speaking at the National Assembly, Tinubu stressed his administration’s commitment to strengthening security and revamping the nation’s infrastructure.
Defence and security were allocated N4.91tn, while infrastructure will receive N4.06tn for projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Sokoto-Badagry Highway.
The President also announced significant allocations for education and health. Education will receive N3.52tn, which includes funding for Universal Basic Education and nine new higher institutions, while the health sector will get N2.48tn to improve healthcare systems and provide essential drugs for public hospitals.
He emphasised the need to empower young Nigerians and improve access to quality healthcare as part of his administration’s human capital development strategy.
Tinubu noted that the government expected N34.82tn in revenue for 2025, leaving a deficit of N13.39tn, representing 3.89 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
He explained that the deficit would be financed through borrowing, stressing that this approach is necessary to achieve the government’s developmental goals.
The budget is based on key economic assumptions, including a projected decline in inflation from 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent and an improvement in the naira exchange rate from N1,700 per dollar to N1,500 per dollar.
The administration also expects oil production to reach 2.06 million barrels per day, driven by increased export capacity and reduced upstream costs.
“The numbers for our 2025 budget proposal tell a bold and exciting story of the direction we are taking to retool and revamp the socio-economic fabric of our society,” Tinubu stated.
“In 2025, we are targeting N34.82tn in revenue to fund the budget. Government expenditure in the same year is projected to be N49.70tn, including N15.81tn for debt servicing.
“A total of N13.08tn, or 3.89 percent of GDP, will make up the budget deficit. This is an ambitious but necessary budget to secure our future.
“The budget projects inflation will decline from the current rate of 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent next year, while the exchange rate will improve from approximately 1,700 naira per US dollar to 1,500 naira, and a base crude oil production assumption of 2.06 million barrels per day.”
Reflecting on economic achievements, Tinubu highlighted that Nigeria’s GDP grew by 3.46 per cent in the third quarter of 2024, compared to 2.54 per cent in the same period of 2023.
He added that foreign reserves now stand at $42bn, providing a buffer against external shocks, while the trade surplus has risen to N5.8tn, indicating the positive impact of export growth.
The President acknowledged the challenges facing the economy, including inflation and insecurity, but assured Nigerians that the reforms undertaken by his administration were beginning to yield results.
He expressed optimism that sacrifices made during the reform process would pave the way for long-term economic stability and growth.
Tinubu described the 2025 budget as a continuation of his administration’s efforts to rebuild the economy and foster inclusive growth.
He emphasised the importance of enhancing national security, revitalising infrastructure, and investing in agriculture to achieve food security and reduce hunger. He also reiterated his administration’s commitment to supporting the private sector as a key driver of economic transformation.
In his closing remarks, Tinubu called for collective action to address the country’s challenges, urging Nigerians to support the government’s efforts to secure peace and rebuild prosperity.
The Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, described the budget as a bold response to Nigeria’s pressing challenges, designed to restore stability and rebuild trust in governance.
He noted that the Federal Government projects total revenue of N36.35tn for 2025, driven by improved non-oil revenue streams, including expanded tax collections, customs duties, and earnings from government-owned enterprises.
The 2025 budget proposal now awaits deliberation and approval by the National Assembly.
Lawmakers laud budget
Meanwhile, lawmakers lauded the budget, stating that it caters to the needs and welfare of Nigerians.
The Senate Committee on Customs Chairman, Senator JimIsah Jibrin, emphasised the importance of addressing Nigeria’s burgeoning debt burden.
“So much, about 15 per cent of the budget expenditure, is earmarked for debt servicing. This is enormous,” he remarked.
“We need to avoid what I call a ‘debt peonage system’—a cycle where we’re constantly in debt. The only way out is to significantly improve our revenue generation capacity.”
He also highlighted the need for revenue-generating agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Customs to “step up their game” to reduce deficits.
Similarly, Senator Victor Umeh praised the budget for its focus on critical areas like security, education, and infrastructure.
“This budget identifies the major challenges confronting our nation, such as insecurity, infrastructure, and human capital development,” he said.
“These are areas that will ensure Nigeria is on the path of sustainable growth if addressed.”
On the delayed presentation of the budget, Umeh noted, “Many projects captured in the 2024 budget remain unexecuted.
“We’ve agreed to roll them over to June 2025, so the timing of this budget is not a major issue. But by February 2025, we should have it ready for implementation.”
Senator Adams Oshiomhole lauded the President’s realistic approach but cautioned against complacency.
“The task of a leader is to give hope. While reforms can be painful, the absence of reforms would lead to stagnation,” Oshiomhole asserted.
He commended the budget for addressing key areas like exchange rate stability and crude oil production, saying, “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the National Assembly must ensure proper oversight to turn these figures into tangible results.”
“We owe it to Nigerians to ensure that every figure and allocation in this budget reflects their best interests,” Oshiomhole said.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Market and Institutions, Senator Osita Izunaso, added that the emphasis on security, infrastructure, and human capital development is commendable, with allocations for defense and security reaching an unprecedented N4.91tn
Despite the optimism, Senator Izunaso stressed the importance of translating these allocations into better living standards for Nigerians.
“The average citizen wants to know how this budget will improve their lives. If oil production increases and food importation reduces as promised, we may begin to see positive changes,” he concluded.
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim praised the budget’s data-driven approach, emphasizing its alignment with economic realities.
“The exchange rate projection of N1,500 to $1 and the growth rate target of 4% in 2025 are grounded in data analysis, which gives hope for stability and progress,” he said.
He added, “A N1,500 exchange rate is more realistic than what you saw in the previous year. So right now, the exchange rate used for this budget is 1,500 US dollars. And that is not bad at all.
“The foundation where the budget is based is also very unique in terms of data collection and data analysis. So, from the data, I can tell you very well that it’s reassuring that there’s good hope for 2025.”
Meanwhile, after the 2025 budget presentation to them at the joint session by President Tinubu, both Chambers of the National Assembly set machinery in motion to extend the capital component of the 2024 budget to June 30, 2025.
Legislative action in that direction was taken by the listing bills for that purpose on their Order paper, which passed the first and second reading in the Senate on Wednesday.
Isunazo said, “The budget is coming late. Today is December 18, so we will lose that culture of beginning a new year with a new budget. Nevertheless, the budget has a lifespan of 12 months.
“So whenever we pass it, it will have a lifespan of 12 months. Even after 12 months, we still have the liberty to extend it. In fact, we are extending the 2024 budget today.
“But that culture of starting on the 1st of January, we have lost it. The executive ought to have brought this budget way before now. But I believe that maybe they are putting things together.
“They wouldn’t want to delay deliberately bringing the budget to the National Assembly.”
“So, I’m saying that that is not a problem, but we have lost that culture.”
The National Assembly also declared Wednesday in Abuja that it would not kill the Tax Reform Bills forwarded to it for consideration and passage by President Bola Tinubu in October of this year.
It said that rather than killing the well-envisioned bills, it would engage Nigerians who have wrong notions about it, change their minds, and get it passed.
Budget hopeless – PDP
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party has labeled President Tinubu’s N47.9tn budget proposal to the National Assembly as “unrealistic, opaque and insincere.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP cautioned that if implemented as outlined, the budget would further worsen the nation’s insecurity, poverty, and despair.
The statement read in part “The Peoples Democratic Party describes the N47.9 trillion 2025 federal budget estimates as presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the National Assembly today as anti-people, which if implemented as presented will plunge the nation deeper into the abyss of insecurity, poverty and hopelessness.
“The party asserts that the budget as presented further confirms the insensitivity of the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress administration towards the plight of Nigerians as it made no meaningful provisions and investments for critical productive sectors of agriculture and food production, electricity, petroleum and gas, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, which are the real drivers of the national economy.
“The PDP states that the budget address sounded more like a campaign rhetoric laced with unsubstantiated economic statistics, false promises and conjured performance claims without clear-cut operable steps and mechanisms to address insecurity, resuscitate the economy, revamp ailing industries, shore up food production, increase the value of the Naira, reduce overall cost of living, create jobs for our youths and guarantee better living standard for citizens.
“President Tinubu dashed the hope of millions of suffering Nigerians who expected him to use the 2025 budget to make strategic provisions that will lead to the reduction in the cost of fuel, food items, electricity tariff and other essential goods and services that have direct bearing on the wellbeing of the people.”
The PDP urged Nigerians to observe that the President, in his speech, neglected to reveal the capital and recurrent details of the 2025 budget.
“The PDP is dismayed that instead, the budget speech was an assault on the sensibility of Nigerians when Mr. President claimed that the 2024 budget recorded a bogus 85 per cent performance without a breakdown of the component between recurrent and capital expenditure.
“Further distressing is President Tinubu’s claim that the economy improved under his watch even in the face of acute poverty, excruciating hardship, comatose infrastructure, collapsed productive sectors, deteriorating value of the Naira, alarming 34.6 per cent inflation and 40 per cent unemployment rates in the last 18 months as validated by official figures.
“Equally ludicrous is Mr. President’s voodoo economy claim that the 2025 budget will reduce the current inflation rate from 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent and improve the value of the Naira from approximately N1,700 to the Dollar to N1,500 without any indices for tangible investment in the productive sector and in the face of a staggering N134.3 trillion ($91.3 billion) debt accumulated under the APC watch.
“The PDP invites Nigerians to note that the President in his speech failed to disclose the Capital and Recurrent profiles of the 2025 budget. This has heightened public apprehension on the issue of full disclosure and transparency in government spending under the current administration.
“Given the crippled national productive sector, it is clear that with the N47.9 trillion expenditure including N15.8 trillion provision for Debt Services, the projected N34.8 trillion revenue with N13 trillion deficit will be financed by excruciating taxes and levies on already impoverished citizens and companies operating in the country.”
Reps recommend exclusions
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has called for the removal of the National Examination Council, the University of Ibadan, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, and 21 other ministries, departments, and agencies from the 2025 budget
This followed what the committee called their repeated failures to account for previous budgetary allocations and internally generated revenues.
The resolution of the committee followed the adoption of its recommendation during its extraordinary sitting on Wednesday.
According to the committee, the affected agencies and institutions had consistently shunned summons aimed at ascertaining their financial administration.
Among the agencies recommended for delisting are some of Nigeria’s most prominent federal institutions, including hospitals, universities, and development agencies.
The MDAs recommended for delisting include the Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria Police Force, Department of Information and Communication Technology and the Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State.
Others are the Federal College of Education, Yola, Adamawa State, Federal Polytechnic Ekowe, Bayelsa State, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Cross River Basin Development Authority, Nigeria Office for Trade Negotiation, the National Examination Council, Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil and Presidential Amnesty Programme, among others.
Also included are the National Health Insurance Authority, Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority, National Space Research and Development Agency, Federal Cooperative College, Ibadan, Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan and Federal School of Survey, Oyo State.
The Chairman of the Committee, Bamidele Salam, said, “The Financial Regulation empowers the National Assembly to exclude any ministry, department, or agency that fails to account for their previous appropriations. As such, the listed MDAs should be excluded from the 2025 budget until they appear before this constitutional committee.”
The committee unanimously recommended that the 24 MDAs should be excluded from the 2025 budget until they appear before the National Assembly.