BudgIT, a civic tech organisation focused on public finance transparency, has uncovered that the Nigerian National Assembly inserted 11,122 projects totalling N6.93 trillion into the 2025 federal budget.
This revelation raises serious concerns about fiscal discipline and the potential misuse of public funds for political purposes.
The National Assembly approved a budget of N54.99 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year, which is a significant increase from the initial executive proposal of N49.7 trillion.
BudgIT’s analysis shows that more than N6.93 trillion of this increase consists of projects added by lawmakers without the approval of the executive branch.
Among these projects, 238 were valued at over N5 billion each, amounting to N2.29 trillion, while 984 projects worth N1.71 trillion were also included.
Also, 1,119 projects valued between N500 million and N1 billion totalled over N641 billion.
The report highlights that 39 percent of these inserted projects, worth N1.72 trillion, were allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture, inflating its capital budget from N242.5 billion to N1.95 trillion.
Other ministries, such as Budget and Economic Planning and Science and Technology, also saw significant increases due to these insertions.
BudgIT identified several categories of inserted projects, including 3,573 projects worth N653.19 billion for federal constituencies, 1,972 projects valued at N444.04 billion for senatorial districts, 1,477 streetlight projects totalling N393.29 billion, 2,122 ICT-related projects amounting to N505.79 billion, and 538 borehole projects costing N114.53 billion. Notably, N6.74 billion was earmarked for the empowerment of traditional rulers.
Gabriel Okeowo, BudgIT’s Country Director, criticised these insertions as undermining fiscal responsibility, distorting development priorities, and redirecting scarce resources to political elites.
He urged President Bola Tinubu to exercise strong executive leadership by reforming the budget process to align with Nigeria’s Medium-Term National Development Plan (2021–2025).
BudgIT also called on the Attorney General of the Federation to seek a constitutional clarification regarding the National Assembly’s power to introduce new capital projects without executive approval.
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cc: Daily Post Ng
