Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has signed the country’s 2026 Appropriation Bill into law, approving Africa’s most populous nation’s largest-ever federal budget at ₦68.32 trillion, while simultaneously extending the implementation window for capital spending from the 2025 budget.
The signing was announced on Friday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, who confirmed the new budget took formal effect from April 1, 2026, under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Capital expenditure dominates the spending plan, with ₦32.2 trillion allocated to the Development Fund for infrastructure and other investment projects, representing approximately 50 percent of the total budget. Recurrent expenditure accounts for ₦15.4 trillion, while ₦15.8 trillion is earmarked for debt servicing. Statutory transfers take ₦4.799 trillion of the allocation. Key sectoral allocations include ₦5.41 trillion for defence and security, ₦3.56 trillion for infrastructure, ₦3.52 trillion for education, and ₦2.48 trillion for health.
The final budget represents a significant revision from what Tinubu first presented to the National Assembly in December 2025, when the proposal stood at ₦58.47 trillion. In March 2026, the President submitted a supplementary request to raise the estimates by ₦9.81 trillion, citing the need to strengthen fiscal transparency and support priority national programmes. The National Assembly passed the revised bill on March 31, 2026.
The 2026 budget represents an increase of ₦9.85 trillion over the initial proposal and stands ₦13.33 trillion higher than the 2025 budget. To help finance the gap between projected revenue of ₦34.33 trillion and total expenditure, the budget is expected to be partly financed through external borrowing, following the approval of a foreign loan plan exceeding $21 billion.
Alongside the main appropriation, Tinubu also signed the Appropriation (Repeal and Enactment) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which extends the implementation period for the capital component of the 2025 budget from March 31, 2026 to June 30, 2026. The Presidency said the extension would allow Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to complete projects at advanced stages of implementation and maximise the value of funds already committed.
Tinubu directed MDAs to ensure disciplined and efficient use of allocated resources, with emphasis on value for money and timely delivery. He commended the National Assembly for the speed with which it processed and passed the budget and reaffirmed his commitment to deepening fiscal reforms and boosting domestic revenue generation.
