Tanimu Yakubu: Multiple, Overlapping Budget Operations Legal Under Current Fiscal Statutes

•Says coordination, transparency of execution paramount

James Emejo in Abuja

Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu, yesterday, said the country’s overlapping budget processes were legal under current fiscal laws.

Yakubu admitted that Nigeria was currently operating three budget instruments concurrently, including 2024 Main Appropriation Act, 2024 Supplementary Budget, and 2025 Appropriation Act.

Yakubu’s clarification came against the backdrop of public concerns about the federal government’s simultaneous operation of multiple budgets.

Critics said such development will alter the January-December budget cycle, and make implementation ineffective.

However, Yakubu stated that the operation reflected the real-world overlap between budget law, execution delays, and system-wide reform efforts.

He said while the multiple budget scenario might raise eyebrows, “it is not a fiscal anomaly.”

According to him, “This is not fiscal dysfunction, it is the transitional cost of trying to modernise a complex, high-volume national budget system.”

The director-general said the operation of multiple budgets concurrently was technically necessary due to multi-year projects and delayed implementation. He said the Nigerian situation was comparable to practices in other countries navigating budget reform and absorptive constraints.

Yakubu said, “This situation illustrates a system adapting to real-time constraints, not one losing control.”

He further clarified that existing law permited an overlap, adding that the Finance Act, Appropriation Act clauses, and Central Bank circulars provide the legal basis for 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.

Yakubu said rather than being a contradiction, the arrangement was an example of institutional flexibility in managing fiscal transitions.

He said, “This situation is not unique to Nigeria. In India, Indonesia, and Kenya, similar overlaps occur, as governments reconcile planning cycles with execution realities.

“The presence of multiple concurrent budgets does not imply fiscal confusion. It reflects a performance-based, transitional budget system where 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. The real issue is not the existence of three budgets, but the coordination and transparency of their execution.”

According to him, “The 2024 Appropriation Act, signed in January 2024, remains valid through December 31, 2024, unless formally repealed or extended. It is the primary legal framework for federal spending in 2024 and remains active—especially for capital projects, statutory obligations, and contracts tied to 2024 project codes.

“The 2024 Supplementary Appropriation Act, passed mid-year, was designed to address escalating security and humanitarian demands, revenue windfalls or reallocations, emerging economic shocks and sectoral urgencies not accounted for in the main budget.”

Yakubu added, “As is standard in public finance, a supplementary budget amends or extends the main budget. It runs concurrently, not as a duplicate, but as a legal and fiscal continuation.

“Although the 2025 Appropriation Act was signed before the end of 2024 – part of efforts to maintain the January-December budget cycle – the transition hasn’t been seamless.

“The execution of the 2025 budget coexists with unspent but already committed capital allocations from 2024, procurement delays and disbursement lags, and multi-year or donor-funded projects that legally span two or more fiscal years.”