iDeemlawfulPresident Bola Ahmed Tinubu has presented the ₦58.18 trillion 2026 budget proposal. The budget was laid before a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday, December 12, 2025.
Top officials of the National Assembly were in attendance, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas, as well as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), among others.
Branded the “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity”, the fiscal plan is aimed at consolidating recent macroeconomic improvements, rebuilding investor confidence and converting economic recovery into jobs and better living conditions for Nigerians.
While addressing lawmakers, Tinubu said, “I appear before this Joint Session of the National Assembly, in fulfilment of my constitutional duty, to present the 2026 Appropriation Bill.” He described the occasion as “defining” in the country’s reform trajectory, admitting that the reforms of the past two and a half years had been painful but reassuring citizens that “their sacrifices are not in vain.”
The President stated that the Nigerian economy was beginning to stabilise, pointing to a 3.98 per cent GDP growth rate in the third quarter of 2025, a steady easing of inflation for eight straight months to 14.45 per cent in November 2025, improved oil output, stronger non-oil revenue streams and growing investor confidence.
He further disclosed that external reserves had risen to a seven-year peak of about $47 billion by mid-November 2025, offering more than 10 months of import cover.
“These outcomes are not accidental. They reflect difficult but deliberate policy choices,” Tinubu said, stressing that the next challenge was to ensure that “stability becomes prosperity, and prosperity becomes shared prosperity.”
According to the proposal, total revenue is estimated at ₦34.33 trillion, while total expenditure is pegged at ₦58.18 trillion, which includes ₦15.52 trillion earmarked for debt servicing. Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure stands at ₦15.25 trillion, with capital spending projected at ₦26.08 trillion. The projected budget deficit of ₦23.85 trillion amounts to 4.28 per cent of GDP.
The budget assumptions include a crude oil price benchmark of $64.85 per barrel, daily oil production of 1.84 million barrels, and an exchange rate of ₦1,400 to the dollar.
“These numbers are not just accounting lines. They are a statement of national priorities,” Tinubu said, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to fiscal sustainability, transparent debt management and value-for-money expenditure.
Security received the largest sectoral allocation at ₦5.41 trillion, followed by infrastructure with ₦3.56 trillion, education at ₦3.52 trillion and health at ₦2.48 trillion.
Unveiling what he described as a comprehensive security doctrine, Tinubu announced that Nigeria was overhauling its national security framework with a unified counter-terrorism strategy. “Henceforth, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists,” he said.
He named bandits, militias, armed gangs, kidnappers, violent cult groups, forest-based armed collectives and foreign-linked mercenaries, warning that financiers, ransom negotiators, arms suppliers, political sponsors and even community or religious leaders who enable violence would also be classified as terrorists.
Addressing budget performance, Tinubu acknowledged that the 2025 budget implementation encountered transition-related difficulties. He disclosed that by the third quarter of 2025, ₦18.6 trillion in revenue, representing 61 per cent of the target, and ₦24.66 trillion in expenditure, amounting to 60 per cent of the target, had been recorded. He added that only ₦3.10 trillion, about 17.7 per cent of the 2025 capital budget, had been released as of Q3.
He assured lawmakers of tighter fiscal discipline in 2026, directing finance and budget authorities to execute the budget “strictly in line with appropriated details and timelines.” Heads of Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) were also instructed to meet revenue benchmarks, supported by full digitisation to eliminate leakages.
“Nigeria can no longer afford inefficiencies or underperformance in strategic agencies. Every institution must play its part,” he cautioned.
The President said spending on human capital development would be expanded, revealing that more than 418,000 students have benefitted from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund in collaboration with 229 tertiary institutions. He noted that health expenditure accounts for six per cent of the total budget, excluding liabilities, with over $500 million in anticipated U.S. grant funding for targeted health programmes.
On food security, Tinubu said agriculture would receive priority through mechanisation, irrigation, climate-smart farming practices, storage facilities and agro-value chain development to reduce post-harvest losses and increase smallholder farmers’ incomes.
“The greatest budget is not the one we announce. It is the one we deliver,” Tinubu said, outlining pledges to strengthen revenue generation, improve spending efficiency and enhance accountability.
As he formally presented the bill to the lawmakers, Tinubu said the 2026 budget “belongs to all of us,” expressing optimism that collaboration between the executive and legislative arms would advance the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“It is with great pleasure that I lay before this distinguished Joint Session of the National Assembly the 2026 Appropriation Bill of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Tinubu concluded. “May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria”