Reps Extend 2025 Capital Budget To 31 December 2026

Reps Extend 2025 Capital Budget To 31 December 2026

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a further extension of the capital component of the 2025 budget, moving the implementation deadline from 30 September to 31 December 2026.

The decision came as lawmakers resumed plenary after the annual parliamentary recess and considered a bill to amend the Appropriation (Repeal and Re-enactment) Act 2025.

The bill was taken through the Committee of Supply, chaired by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, and passed. House Leader Julius Ihonvbere, who led the debate, said economic and fiscal pressures had made it difficult to finish capital projects before the previous cut-off. He told members the House was acting so that unfinished work would not be blamed on an expired legal window.

This is the fourth extension of the 2025 capital budget. The original year-end 2025 deadline was first moved to 31 March 2026, then to 30 June, then to 30 September, and now to 31 December 2026.

The N54.99 trillion 2025 Appropriation Act was passed on 13 February 2025 and signed by President Bola Tinubu on 28 February. With this latest shift, capital implementation under that Act will run a full year beyond the original fiscal year.

Lawmakers said the extra three months is meant to stop ongoing projects from stalling over funding and execution delays. Federal ministries, departments and agencies now have until 31 December 2026 to spend and complete 2025 capital allocations.

The House later adjourned plenary to Tuesday, 13 October 2026. Three executive bills also read At the same sitting, three executive measures were introduced. President Tinubu asked the House to consider the National Research and Development Fund Establishment Bill, 2026.

The bill seeks a single framework for research financing across MDAs, folding scattered research funds into a central, competitive pool under the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, with funding linked to the Nigerian Content Development Fund.

The same request has also gone to the Senate. The President also transmitted the NDDC’s 2026 statutory budget for consideration. The commission has proposed about N1.75 trillion for the year, down from the N1.985 trillion approved for 2025.

The third is the National Postgraduate Medical College Amendment Bill 2026, which would expand the College’s mandate to include the award of Ph.D. degrees in Clinical Medicine.