President Tinubu Announces Shift to Single Annual Budget Cycle from April 2026

President Tinubu has announced a shift to Single Annual Budget Cycle from April 2026.

NewsOnline Nigeria reports that President Bola Tinubu has announced that Nigeria will fully transition to a single annual budget cycle from April 2026, marking a major shift in the country’s fiscal management framework.

The president made the announcement on Friday while presenting the 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly, saying the reform would put an end to overlapping budgets that have hindered planning, delayed project execution and weakened accountability across government institutions.

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Tinubu said the practice of running multiple budgets concurrently has distorted fiscal planning, slowed the release of capital funds and reduced transparency within Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). He stated that all outstanding capital liabilities from previous years would be fully funded and closed by March 31, 2026.

“We are terminating the habit of running three budgets in one inflow. By March 31, 2026, all capital liabilities from previous years will be fully funded and closed. From April, Nigeria operates on a single budget, backed by a single revenue cycle. No overlaps, no excuses, no rollovers culture,” the president said.

According to him, the move forms part of a broader fiscal reform agenda aimed at resetting Nigeria’s budget calendar, strengthening public financial management and improving discipline in government spending. He explained that the extension to March 31, 2026, would provide sufficient time to clear outstanding capital obligations, after which the country would return to a cleaner, single-cycle budget framework.

Tinubu added that the reform builds on ongoing measures such as budget revisions, adjustments to capital targets and enhanced revenue mobilisation efforts.

Earlier, the president had written to the House of Representatives seeking the repeal and re-enactment of the 2024 and 2025 budgets, alongside a proposal to extend the 2025 budget to March 31, 2026. In the letter, he explained that the 2024 Appropriation Act of N35.06 trillion would be repealed and re-enacted with a revised total expenditure of N43.56 trillion.

Under the revised 2024 budget, N1.74 trillion was allocated for statutory transfers, N8.27 trillion for debt servicing, N11.27 trillion for recurrent expenditure and N22.28 trillion for capital projects up to December 31, 2025. Tinubu also proposed reducing the 2025 budget from N54.99 trillion to N48.32 trillion and extending its implementation to March 31, 2026.

In June, the Senate approved a second extension of the implementation period for the 2024 capital component of the national budget, moving the deadline from June 30, 2025, to December 31, 2025. The January-to-December budget cycle, which had been reinstated as a marker of fiscal discipline during the 9th National Assembly, has since faced multiple extensions.

On December 18, 2024, the National Assembly approved extending the lifespan of the 2024 budget to June 2025, while last week, the federal government directed MDAs to roll over 70 percent of their approved 2025 capital allocations into 2026.