The Senate of Nigeria has passed a budget of ₦68.34 trillion, up from the ₦58 trillion earlier presented by Bola Ahmed Tinubu to a joint session of the National Assembly of Nigeria.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, confirmed the increase shortly after presenting the committee’s report at Tuesday’s plenary.
Senator Adeola explained that the budget was raised in line with the president’s request by over ₦9 trillion across both chambers of the National Assembly.
He outlined reasons for the increase to include ongoing developmental projects that were not fully captured in the 2026 budget proposal.
He said first, there is a funding challenge of the extention of capital conponent of the 2025 budget to 31st March 2026, saying there is the challenge of 30 percent release while in the 2026 only 70 percent is provided in the budget and that gap must be addressed well.
He also said there were some legacy projects which were left behind such as light rail project that the current administration embarked on and requested that the Senate provide the sum of N456 billion for that project.
Also, there is this counterpart funding in the health sector as a result of the bilateral agreement Nigeria had with the U.S. government in which Nigeria need to provide its counterpart funding of about 482 billion and also the judiciary budget need to be increase because of the need for additional judges and many other project that were not captured in the 2026 appropriation act.
The chairman further appealed to Nigerians not to be scared by the contum of money borrowed rather what have been done , assuring that this administration of president Bola Ahmad Tinubu means well to this country as many investors are coming in to the country and billions naira is being invested for the development of this country.
Adeola also said no country in the world that does not collect loans even the US is the most indebted country.
Earlier, the senate also extended the implementation of capital conponent of the 2025 budget which was scheduled to expired today the March 31st to 30 of June 2026.
Similarly, the president of the senate declared three senatirial seats vacant in Enugu , Nasarawa and Rivers states urging INEC to ensure conduct of elections to fill the vacancies 30 days from this declaration.
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