Economic and financial experts have stated that part of the 2026 budget may be rolled over into 2027, noting that the Federal Government is still struggling with the implementation of previous budget cycles.
A total of ₦68.32 trillion 2026 budget was signed into law in April 2026. Analysts said the budget is currently in its active execution phase, stating that, although comprehensive, audited federal implementation performance figures for the mid-year remain largely unpublished by the Budget Office of the Federation.
According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, “We are still implementing the 2024 budget in 2026, implementing 2025 and 2026 all together.”
He said the government was trying to conclude implementation of the previous budgets to enable focused implementation of a single budget cycle.
Also speaking to Tribune Online, an economic expert, Mr Eric Igulla, noted that if the Federal Government did not increase the release of funds to the system to adequately settle previous budget cycles, the 2026 budget might be rolled over into 2027.
He explained that the non-release of funds for the implementation of previous budgets, particularly for capital projects, had caused financial problems for the government.
“Financial discipline is required to keep to the budget and do as you had proposed. Now, a lot of important projects that would have benefited ordinary Nigerians are hanging in the air,” he stated.
Also speaking to Tribune, another economic expert, Eze Onyekpere, explained that under the current expenditure, “you have salaries and emoluments of public officers. So the only people you can touch are those people who are working with the government, which is quite very few.
“Another part of recurrent expenditure is debt, which is taking 53% of all our revenue. So those ones are not impacting on anybody. Now, the part of the budget that touches the lives of the people is the capital budget, particularly developmental capital,” he stated.
It was reported that only 30% of the 2025 capital budget was funded and executed during its initial cycle due to revenue shortfalls. Seventy per cent of the unexecuted 2025 capital projects were deferred and rolled over into the 2026 capital budget framework.
Also lamenting the non-implementation of the country’s budget, another economic expert and the co-founder of BudgIT, Oluseun Onigbinde, said the current administration had declared more revenue with low capital releases.
It was also reported that weeks ago, during the Senate’s engagement with the Ministry of Finance, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno raised the alarm. He questioned why capital projects and critical government programmes appeared to be lagging if revenue collections were exceeding projections.
The senator also expressed concern over the reported absence of capital releases to security agencies and sought clarification on the retention of about ₦1.7 trillion from recent Federation Account allocations.
“We have exceeded the target of our revenue collection. It is inherently contradictory for government to woefully fail to implement the budget. Where are these revenues going to? If the budget, for example, the 2025 budget, has not been implemented, and we have to roll over 70% of 2025 to 2026, and that with the promise that 30% will be implemented before March.
“Up to March, even 30% was not implemented. The National Assembly had to extend the lifespan of the budget up to September to allow government to implement just the 30% component of the 2025 budget,” he lamented.
Tribune Online contacted the Budget Office of the Federation to ascertain the level of 2026 budget implementation. However, there was no response at the time of filing this report.
Analysts are of the opinion that, except for intensified releases of funds with prudent spending in the coming days, part of the 2026 budget may be rolled over into 2027.