2026 Capital Budget Faces Fresh Roll-Over As N16.8trn 2024/25 Projects Remain Unimplemented

There are growing indications that the Federal Government’s 2026 capital budget may not be substantially implemented before the end of the fiscal year, raising the prospect of another roll-over of capital projects and allocations into subsequent years.

A senior official of the Budget Office of the Federation, who spoke with Financial Vanguard in Lagos last weekend, confirmed that outstanding capital allocations could be carried forward.

“It will be rolled over, it is normal,” the official said.

Findings from several ministries, departments and agencies indicate that the Federal Government is still grappling with outstanding capital budget releases from 2024 and 2025, with some agencies reporting that less than 50 per cent of their allocations had been released.

The development means that the combined outstanding capital budgets of the previous two years could be carried forward again, even as the government struggles to implement the 2026 capital programme.

The roll-over of the 2024 and 2025 capital budgets has already occurred twice, with the latest extension scheduled to expire on September 30, 2026.

The National Assembly had approved the roll-over of about N16.8 trillion in capital expenditure appropriated in the 2024 and 2025 budgets into the 2026 fiscal year. The extension, initially approved until June 2026, expired without significant implementation, prompting another extension to September 30.

The N16.8 trillion carried forward from the previous budgets constitutes a substantial portion of the N32.3 trillion allocated for capital expenditure in the 2026 budget.

This leaves about N15.5 trillion of the 2026 capital allocation for projects specifically appropriated for the year, although the outstanding commitments from previous years continue to place pressure on available funds.

House Of Representatives Raises Concerns

The issue has also featured prominently in the work of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations.

While presenting the committee’s findings on the implementation of previous budgets, its chairman, Abubakar Bichi, disclosed that N16.765 trillion had to be removed from the capital allocation and rolled over into the 2026 fiscal year due to funding constraints.

Bichi said the committee engaged the then Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; and the Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, to establish why the funds had not been released.

The issue persisted as lawmakers considered the N68.323 trillion 2026 budget.

By April 2026, the National Assembly had approved about N32 trillion for capital expenditure through the Development Fund. Part of the increase from the executive’s initial N58.47 trillion proposal was intended to regularise outstanding capital obligations carried over from 2025 and ensure payment for completed projects.

The figures presented to lawmakers indicate that a significant portion of the 2026 capital budget is being used to address unfinished financial obligations from previous years rather than funding entirely new projects.

Another Extension For 2025 Budget

The House of Representatives was again confronted with the issue in June 2026 when Majority Leader Julius Ihonvbere said substantial funds released to ministries, departments and agencies remained unspent due to administrative bottlenecks, procurement delays and other implementation challenges.

His remarks came during consideration of a bill seeking to extend the lifespan of the 2025 capital budget from June 30 to September 30, 2026.

Speaker Tajudeen Abbas supported the extension, saying available records indicated that the budget had not been fully implemented.

The repeated extensions have raised concerns over the ability of government agencies to execute capital projects within the period for which funds are appropriated.

Healthcare Sector Records Severe Shortfall

The extent of the funding challenge was also highlighted during the 2026 budget defence session of the House Committee on Healthcare Services, chaired by Amos Gwamna Magaji.

Appearing before the committee in February 2026, the Coordinating Minister of Health, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed that only N36 million had been released out of the N218 billion appropriated for the ministry’s capital projects and programmes in the 2025 budget.

The amount represented about 0.02 per cent of the approved capital allocation, and Pate said even the released funds had not been utilised.

He attributed the situation partly to the “Bottom-Up Cash Plan” operated by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, while also pointing to delays in the release of Nigeria’s counterpart contributions for some donor-supported programmes.

Pate described 2025 as an unusual budget year, saying implementation had been delayed by circumstances beyond the ministry’s control.

The committee, however, requested detailed documentation on donor funds received by the ministry and how such funds had been utilised.

Public Accounts Committee Moves Against Defaulting MDAs

The House Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Bamidele Salam, has also raised concerns over financial accountability among government agencies.

Following an investigative hearing in February 2026, the committee recommended that 22 ministries, departments and agencies be excluded from the 2026 budget process over their failure to respond adequately to audit queries and account for public funds.

Among the affected agencies were the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Federal Housing Authority, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Insurance Commission and National Business and Technical Examinations Board.

Salam said the recommendation followed repeated invitations and directives issued to the affected agencies, some of which had also failed to submit audited financial statements for several years.

The committee cited the Financial Regulations 2009 and the constitutional oversight powers of the National Assembly in making its recommendation.

Agencies Face Wider Legislative Scrutiny

An ad-hoc committee of the House investigating agricultural subsidies, intervention funds, aid and grants programmes between 2015 and 2025 has separately documented difficulties in getting some government agencies and financial institutions to appear before lawmakers.

The development has added another layer to concerns over the accountability and tracking of government funds, particularly where agencies are unable or unwilling to provide timely information on the utilisation of appropriated resources.

Capital Budget Carry-Over Becomes Recurring Issue

The challenge is not entirely new.

President Bola Tinubu had earlier told the National Assembly that by the third quarter of 2025, only N3.10 trillion, representing about 17.7 per cent of the 2025 capital budget, had been released.

The President also disclosed that priority was being given to completing outstanding 2024 capital projects, with N2.23 trillion released as of June 2025 under an extension of the previous capital budget.

The continuing overlap between old and new capital budgets has therefore become a recurring feature of federal budget implementation.

Ministries Record Low Capital Releases

Sector-by-sector disclosures during the 2026 budget defence sessions further revealed significant gaps between appropriated capital funds and actual releases.

The Ministry of Women Affairs, for instance, received N394.8 million out of an N89.8 billion capital allocation, representing about 0.44 per cent.

The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy received N202 million out of N353 billion, while the Ministry of Transportation received N2.5 billion from an allocation of N256.7 billion.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development received N2 billion out of N100 billion, while the Ministry of Water Resources received N1 billion from an N80 billion capital allocation.

Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security received N3 billion out of N120 billion.

Across eight ministries reviewed, only N9.13 billion had been released from a combined capital allocation of N1.218 trillion, representing about 1.3 per cent.

Cash Planning, Revenue And Procurement Bottlenecks

Officials and lawmakers have attributed the slow pace of capital releases to a combination of factors, including the cash-planning framework administered by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, delayed counterpart funding, debt-servicing obligations and procurement challenges.

The cash-planning arrangement means funds are released based on available revenue and approved cash plans rather than solely on the amounts appropriated by the National Assembly.

Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite, told the Senate Appropriations Committee in February that payments for outstanding 2024 capital obligations were beginning and that the government’s financial management system was back online.

She also said ministries, departments and agencies had been directed to upload their cash plans before funds could be released.

The development underscores the gap between budgetary appropriation and actual cash availability.

For the various House committees examining the issue, the recurring challenge is that an appropriation by the National Assembly does not automatically translate into the release or utilisation of the approved funds.

Unless the cash-release, procurement and accountability processes improve, the 2026 capital budget could face another cycle of delayed implementation and roll-overs, leaving new projects competing for funds with unfinished obligations from previous years.

Source: Vanguard