Tinubu seeks N9.3trn budget hike, pushing 2026 spending to N67.7trn

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

President Bola Tinubu has formally requested National Assembly’s approval for a staggering N9.3 trillion upward revision of the 2026 Appropriation Bill, raising the proposed federal budget from N58.4 trillion to N67.7 trillion in a move that signals widening fiscal ambition amid mounting concerns over Nigeria’s ballooning debt profile.

The request was conveyed in a letter read on the Senate floor Tuesday by Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, following lawmakers’ resumption from the two-week Eid-el-Fitr break.

The proposed adjustment represents a nearly 16 percent increase to Africa’s largest economy’s spending plan, a budget that already stood as the highest in Nigeria’s history when Tinubu presented it to the National Assembly last December.

In his communication, Tinubu outlined three primary objectives driving the fiscal expansion: regularizing outstanding legal commitments carried over from previous appropriation cycles, consolidating existing government indebtedness within the fiscal framework, and providing for a limited number of strategic priority projects while aligning the 2026 financing plan to preserve macro-fiscal stability.

“The proposed adjustment is aimed at strengthening fiscal transparency and ensuring more effective implementation of priority national programmes,” the President stated in the letter.

The December 2025 budget presentation, christened the “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity,” originally projected total expenditure of N58.18 trillion, with expected revenue of N34.33 trillion, leaving a deficit of N23.85 trillion representing 4.28 percent of GDP.

The revised figures push the deficit even higher, though precise new revenue projections have not yet been released.

Tinubu emphasized that the adjustment is designed to ease pressure on domestic financial markets while ensuring that outstanding obligations from previous fiscal cycles do not hinder implementation of the 2026 budget.

The proposed increase comes as Nigeria’s public debt stock has surged to over N152 trillion, with debt service consuming an estimated 50 to 60 percent of federal revenue, a trajectory that economists warn could choke off investment in critical infrastructure and social services.

Senate Committee on Appropriations Chairman Solomon Adeola acknowledged during recent budget hearings that “Nigeria cannot avoid borrowing because revenue inflows are unpredictable and development needs are enormous,” but emphasized that “the key question is not whether we borrow, but how responsibly we manage these deficits”.

The 2026 budget framework anticipates total borrowing of over N20 trillion, including N17.89 trillion in domestic borrowing alone, a 72 percent increase from the 2025 projection.