The concurrent operation of three budgets is a deliberate strategy to ensure the delivery of appropriated capital projects, the Federal Government has said.
Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, yesterday provided clarity on the multi-budget operations.
The 2024 Appropriation Act, 2024 supplementary budget, and 2025 Appropriation Act are running simultaneously.
The National Assembly this week extended the capital vote component of the 2024 budget till December 31.
According to Yakubu, the development is not a sign of fiscal confusion but a deliberate response to real-world economic and administrative realities.
Addressing public concerns over the overlapping fiscal instruments, Yakubu said that while the simultaneous operation of multiple budgets may appear unconventional, it is legally grounded and administratively necessary.
“It reflects the real-world overlap between budget law, execution delays, and system-wide reform efforts,” Yakubu said.
He said the concurrent implementation of budgets is not outside the bounds of national laws and conforms to global best practices.
He outlined that the Finance Act, Appropriation Act clauses, and Central Bank of Nigeria’s circulars provide the legal basis for this coexistence by allowing rollover of capital releases across fiscal years; cash-flow bridging to support early implementation of new budgets; and parallel accounting for complex or externally-financed infrastructure and social programmes.
He said: “This is not fiscal dysfunction—it is the transitional cost of trying to modernise a complex, high-volume national budget system.”
He described the current situation as “institutional flexibility in managing fiscal transitions”, noting that the critical issue should not be the number of budgets being operated but the coordination and transparency in their execution.
“What’s in operation now is a reforming system, not a chaotic one.
“The 2025 budget is being implemented in earnest, while residuals from the 2024 and Supplementary Budgets are lawfully closed out and disbursed.
“This is part of building a more agile and accountable public finance framework.
“Nigeria’s overlapping budget operations are legal under current fiscal statutes, technically necessary due to multi-year projects and delayed implementation, and comparable to practices in other countries navigating budget reform and absorptive constraints,” Yakubu said.
He explained that the 2024 Appropriation Act, which was signed by the President in January 2024, was valid until December 31, 2024, but it remains the primary legal framework for federal spending in 2024 and thus continued to be active, especially for capital projects, statutory obligations, and contracts tied to 2024 project codes.
To bridge gaps that arose after the approval of the main budget, the Federal Government introduced a Supplementary Appropriation Act mid-year.
