President Bola Tinubu has asked the House of Representatives to repeal and re-enact the 2024 and 2025 Appropriation Acts and to extend the implementation of the 2025 budget to 31 March 2026.

The request was contained in a letter written by the President and read on the floor of the House on Friday by the Speaker, Rt Honourable Abbas Tajudeen.

The development comes ahead of President Tinubu’s presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly later today.

In the letter, the President explained that the proposed bills seek to repeal the 2024 Appropriation Act, originally pegged at N35.06 trillion, and re-enact it with a revised total expenditure of N43.56 trillion.

He stated that the revised 2024 budget provides for N1.74 trillion in statutory transfers, N8.27 trillion for debt servicing, N11.27 trillion for recurrent expenditure, and N22.28 trillion for capital projects, with implementation running until 31 December 2025.

President Tinubu also proposed a reduction of the 2025 Appropriation Act from N54.99 trillion to N48.32 trillion, alongside an extension of its implementation period to 31 March 2026.

According to him, “This is part of a broader fiscal reform measure aimed at eliminating the overlap of multiple concurrently running budgets, thereby strengthening planning, execution, and accountability across government expenditure cycles.”

The President further explained that the proposed bills would make room for expenditure items that were not previously captured and would introduce a revised capital implementation benchmark of 30 per cent.

He said the extension of the 2025 budget would ensure the full release of the 30 per cent capital allocation to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, thereby improving project execution and overall budget performance.

Tinubu reiterated that the measures form part of a wider fiscal reform agenda designed to end the practice of overlapping budgets, which he said weakens planning, execution and accountability in public finance management.

In June, the Senate approved a second extension of the implementation period for the 2024 capital component of the national budget, shifting the deadline from 30 June 2025 to 31 December 2025.

The extension was intended to allow for the full execution of capital projects funded under the 2024 Appropriation Act.

The January-to-December budget implementation cycle, regarded as a key element of fiscal discipline, was introduced during the tenure of the 9th National Assembly.

On 18 December 2024, the National Assembly approved an earlier extension of the lifespan of the 2024 budget to June 2025.

Last week, the Federal Government directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies to carry over 70 per cent of their approved 2025 capital allocations into the 2026 fiscal year.

In a circular issued by the Budget Ministry and circulated to senior government officials, MDAs were instructed that their 2026 budget proposals must largely consist of funds already allocated in the 2025 budget.

The circular also stated that no new capital projects would be permitted under the directive.