The Federal Government has defended its decision to operate the 2024 Appropriation Act, the 2024 Supplementary Budget, and the newly signed 2025 Appropriation Act concurrently, insisting the move is both legal and necessary.
Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, said that the development is not a sign of confusion but a deliberate strategy to ensure the full implementation of capital projects across the country.
Speaking in Abuja, Yakubu explained that the simultaneous operation of the three budgets was in response to practical realities, including project delays, procurement bottlenecks, and the need for institutional reforms.
“This is not fiscal dysfunction—it is the transitional cost of trying to modernise a complex, high-volume national budget system,” he said.
Yakubu said provisions in the Finance Act, Appropriation Act, and Central Bank of Nigeria circulars allow for such an approach. He added that these legal instruments permit capital budget rollovers, early cash-flow support for new budgets, and parallel accounting for multi-year and donor-funded projects.
He stressed that the ongoing budget structure reflects “institutional flexibility,” not chaos, and that what matters is coordination and transparency.
According to him, “The 2025 budget is being implemented in earnest, while residuals from the 2024 and supplementary budgets are lawfully closed out and disbursed.”
