The Senate has directed the Federal Ministry of Finance to submit a comprehensive report on the performance of 2024 budget within two weeks.
Gatekeepers News reports that it stated that discussions on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for 2026–2029 will only commence after the committee receives the report on October 23.
During the committee session, the chairman noted that while progress has been made on the 2024 and 2025 budgets, more effort is required.
He said, “We have heard the position at which the 2024 budget is, and the position of the 2025 budget. And the expectations we are having for the ministry is to, as a matter of urgency, bring the MTEF for 2026 to 2029.”
He explained that the committee had received briefings from the accountant-general and the director of budgets regarding fund releases, signed warrants, and the 2025 authority to incur expenditure, which enables agencies to begin capital projects.
He added that the Senate expects a documented account of the 2024 budget’s performance and the government’s projections for 2025 before any deliberation on the new MTEF.
According to him, the minister of finance has agreed to provide the progress report, and the committee will reconvene on October 23 to review it.
Before the meeting went into a closed-door session, the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, reported that the government was recording high performance in the implementation of the 2024 capital budget, noting that the 2025 fiscal plan was also progressing as expected.
However, Senator Sani Yakubu expressed a different view, describing both fiscal years as turbulent. He said that many assumptions underlying the 2024 and 2025 budgets did not materialize as projected.
He said, “We have indeed had a turbulent year — one in which most of the assumptions underpinning the 2024 and 2025 budgets turned out differently from projections.”
“Oil revenue, assumed at $75 per barrel, fell short by between $10 and $15 due to global price fluctuations. Inflation also rose beyond projections, affecting borrowing costs and debt service performance, which significantly exceeded targets.”
Yakubu added that the fiscal challenges were further worsened by the unanticipated effects of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2022, which allocates 30 percent of gross oil revenue and 30 percent of oil and gas profits to upstream operations, while the federal government bears NNPC’s operating costs. He said this has reduced allocations to the federation account by nearly 70 percent.
He also pointed out that crude oil production levels have been consistently below the projections contained in the approved MTEF.
