… As N23.9trillion capital component extends to 2026
By Steven Atokolo
The National Assembly has agreed with President Tinubu’s economic team to withdraw the circular that the Ministry of Finance issued to the MDAs to stop awarding all the contracts in the 2025 fiscal year strongly indicating that the N23.9trillion capital component of the entire N54.99trillion 2025 budget will extend to 2026 fiscal year.
The said circular had directed MDAs to stop forthwith award of such contracts until the authority to incur expenditure (AIE) was issued.
The resolution for withdrawal of circulars already issued for contracts award for the 2025 fiscal year by the executive was jointly taken by committees on Appropriations of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in conjunction with the economic team headed by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun.
The joint resolution was sequel to the earlier one taken by the Appropriation Committee in the House of Representatives a week earlier during an interactive session with the economic team of the federal government.
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abubakar Bichi informed the joint committee that the House Committee had an interaction with the executives on September 7, 2025 where 201 members from the House attended what he referred to as “a serious engagement with the executives in terms of the 2024 implementation as well as 2025 implementations.
Some of the resolutions reached at the meeting, according to Hon. Bichi include the following:
“The 2024 will continue till December 31st, 2025; we both agreed with the executives and our colleagues.
“We also agreed that the 2025 budget implementation will commence as soon as possible, and authority to incur expenditure (AIE) will be issued within seven days after our discussions.
“We also agreed that the circular that the Ministry of Finance issued to the MDAs to stop awarding all the contracts until the AIE is issued will be cancelled. And both our committees and the executives agreed on that.
“We agreed to come back and sit down with the executives and ask for the feedback”.
The Thursday meeting of the joint committee with the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun and the Economic team was a follow up of the resolution September 7, 2025 meeting to reconvene.
Hon. Bichi said the two chambers (House and Senate) “are working as one family. We are working as one National Assembly, one team. Whatever we did, we are always discussing with them so that we can go on the same page.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Olamilekan (Ogun West) at the Thursday meeting thanked his counterparts in the House of Reps for the resolutions reached with the executive and urged his colleagues, the senators in support of the adoption of the resolutions to say aye and there was a loud “aye”.
Members of the economic team at the assessment of 2024, 2025 budget implementation session with the joint committee include the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, the Accountant General of the Federation, Samsudeen Ogunjimi and the Director – General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu.
The two parties later went into closed door session after adoption of the resolution without any contrary opinion from any member of the economic team.
