National Assembly To Extend 2024 Budget Cycle

The National Assembly is set to extend the 2024 budget cycle, while the 2025 budget will be passed at the end of the year.

President Bola Tinubu is expected to present the N47.9tn 2025 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions, Osita Izunaso (APC, Imo West), noted that the late submission of the budget makes its passage within the year unfeasible.

Isunazo said, “The budget is coming late. Today is December 18, so we will lose that culture of beginning a new year with a new budget. Nevertheless, the budget has a lifespan of 12 months.

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“So whenever we pass it, it will have a lifespan of 12 months. Even after 12 months, we still have the liberty to extend it. In fact, we are extending the 2024 budget today.

“But that culture of starting on the 1st of January, we have lost it. The executive ought to have brought this budget way before now. But I believe that maybe they are putting things together.

“They wouldn’t want to delay deliberately bringing the budget to the National Assembly. So I’m saying that that is not a problem, but we have lost that culture.”

The 9th National Assembly in 2020 introduced the January-December budget cycle during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as a strategy to enhance budget performance.

This marked a departure from the June-May cycle, which persisted until the 2019 appropriation.