The Federal Government may extend the 2025 budget into 2026, as slow capital project implementation, procurement delays, and a shutdown of the cash-planning portal have left many projects stalled about eight months into the fiscal year.
The possibility of a rollover came to light at a stakeholders’ engagement in Abuja on Wednesday, organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to review progress and challenges in implementing the extended 2024 capital budget and the 2025 capital budget under the Bottom-Up Cash Planning Policy.
It was learnt that before any contract is signed, ministries, departments, and agencies must submit a monthly cash plan on an online platform provided by the OAGF. This cash plan, which sets out the projects to be funded and the amounts required, is reviewed and consolidated by the OAGF into a federal cash plan.
The consolidated plan is then sent to the Ministry of Finance for approval. Once approved, the ministry issues warrants—formal authorisations to spend—which are returned to the OAGF to be uploaded on the same portal. Only then can MDAs upload their payment plans, after which funds are released directly to contractors, suppliers, or beneficiaries.
However, since May, the portal has been locked for uploading cash plans for 2025 expenditures and contracts. Without cash plans, warrants cannot be issued; without warrants, payment plans cannot be uploaded; and without payment plans, no funds can be released.
A director-general under an agency in the health sector told correspondents that “we are complaining that the platform has been blocked since none of us could upload our cash plans since May.”
Presiding over the meeting, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, said the BUCPP was designed to ensure the government spent within its means by requiring warrants or Authorities to Incur Expenditure before commitments were made. He accused some MDAs of breaching the Public Procurement Act 2007 and other regulations, awarding contracts simply because they were budgeted for, without regard to cash availability.
He also faulted the trend of loading cash needs heavily with staff-related costs and mobilisation fees while leaving ongoing and completed projects unfunded. This, he said, had forced some contractors to borrow from banks at high interest rates and left priority government projects unattended.
“Without [a warrant], no MDA is allowed to award a new contract or process any capital payments in the GIFMIS platform,” Ogunjimi warned. He added that cash plans submitted between February and March for the extended 2024 budget had already been warranted, and that payments authorised but unused were now being finalised.
Ogunjimi assured participants that previously captured commitments would be honoured. “For those who have awarded contracts, the contract has been loaded on the GIFMIS platform, cash one has been done, it has become a liability to the government that we are ready to fund and we will fund them,” he said.
