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Poor economy: FG moves 2025 MDA capital budget to 2026
In a move reflecting the parlous state of the nation’s economy, the Federal Government has opted to tinker with the 2025 budget, moving 70 per cent of its capital allocations into the 2026 fiscal year.
All Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), were directed to comply with the instruction, going by the 2026 Abridged Budget Call Circular issued by the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
The document, circulated to Ministers, Service Chiefs, and Heads of Agencies, said the government had adopted a new framework capping all 2026 capital budget ceilings at 70 per cent of 2025 project allocations, meaning that only 30 per cent of this year’s capital budget would be released in 2025, while the remaining 70 per cent would form the foundation of next year’s capital spending.
The circular, which laid out strict guidelines for preparing next year’s spending plan, including a ban on introducing new capital projects, indicated gave administration prioritises to completing ongoing projects amid weak revenues and rising fiscal pressures.
It said: “MDAs must upload 70 per cent of their 2025 FGN Budget to continue in FY2026 and ensure that all rollover items align with the administration’s priorities—national security, economic growth, education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, power, energy, and social safety nets.
“This is meant to prevent duplication, strengthen continuity and ensure that uncompleted projects are not abandoned. MDAs against attempting to exceed their 2025 overhead ceilings in their 2026 submissions, despite inflationary pressures.
“We are constrained by revenue challenges. While we note the impact of inflation, proposals that exceed approved ceilings will be adjusted downward. The 2026 budget must reflect the strategies in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (2026–2028), the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Plan, the Ward Development Plan and the National Development Plan, as well as the Accelerated Stabilisation and Actualisation Plan.
“MDAs must submit their budgets through the GIFMIS Budget Preparation Subsystem, while government-owned enterprises will submit via the Budget Information Management and Monitoring System. All submissions must be completed by Tuesday, December 9, 2025. Statutory transfers are projected to drop from N3.64tn in 2025 to N3.15tn in 2026, while recurrent non-debt expenditure is estimated at N15.26tn.
“Debt service obligations are set to rise sharply—from N13.94tn this year to N15.52tn in 2026. Aggregate capital expenditure is projected at N22.37tn, down from N26.19tn in 2025. Capital allocations for MDAs fall from N12.39tn to N8.67tn, while project-tied loans will shrink from N3.36tn to N2.05tn.
“The deficit widens significantly to N20.12tn in 2026, from N14.10tn in the current year. Personnel costs have already been computed using data from IPPIS and earlier submissions, the circular noted. Each ministry will be informed of its personnel cost ceiling for 2026.
“The financial projections accompanying the circular show a more constrained revenue outlook for 2026. Total funds available to the Federal Government, including GOEs, are projected at N54.46tn, down slightly from N54.99tn in 2025.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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