BudgIT Nigeria Uncovers N6.9 Trillion Budget Padding, Says FG Keeping Mum

A Civic tech organisation, BudgIT Nigeria, says it has uncovered over 11,000 dubious projects worth N6.93trn inserted by the National Assembly in the 2025 budget.
The organisation spoke in a statement published on its official X handle on Tuesday, describing the development as a “deeply entrenched culture of exploitation and abuse,” led by top-ranking members of the National Assembly.
“BudgIT, a prominent civic tech organisation promoting transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s public finance, has uncovered 11,122 projects valued at N6.93tn inserted by the National Assembly into the 2025 Federal Government budget. What began as isolated irregularities has, over the years, evolved into a deeply entrenched culture of exploitation and abuse, with the budget process now a playground for self-serving political interests, led by top-ranking members of the National Assembly,” the statement partly read.
President Bola Tinubu, on December 18, 2024, presented an appropriation bill of N49.74trn to the NASS for the 2025 fiscal year, up by 80.96 per cent from the initially proposed 2024 budget. The Assembly upwardly reviewed and passed the budget, which was signed into law by President Tinubu on February 28, 2025.
The President had however increased the budget to N54.2tn, which was then bumped up by the Assembly to N54.99tn, indicating a cumulative increase of N5.29tn.
However, in its statement, BudgIT noted that, of the total 11,122 projects inserted into the budget, 238 projects, each worth more than N5bn, with a cumulative value of N2.29tn, were inserted with little to no justification, while another 984 projects worth N1.71tn and 1,119 projects, costing between N500m and N1bn and totalling N641.38bn were inserted indiscriminately.
They added that 39 per cent of the insertions (4,371 projects worth N1.72tn), were “forced” into the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, raising its capital allocation from N242.5bn to N1.95tn, while the Ministry of Science and Technology also saw its allocation increase from N994.98bn to N1.1trn from insertions.
“Our analysis reveals that 238 projects valued above N5bn each, with a cumulative value of N2.29tn, were inserted with little to no justification. 984 projects worth N1.71tn and 1,119 projects within the range of N500m to N1bn, totaling N641.38bn, were indiscriminately inserted. A closer look shows that 3,573 projects worth N653.19bn are assigned directly to federal constituencies and 1,972 projects worth N444.04bn to senatorial districts.
“Shockingly 39% of all insertions – 4371 projects worth N1.72trn – were forced into the Ministry of Agriculture’s budget, inflating its capital allocation from N242.5bn to N1.95tn and budget, and the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning also saw bloated allocations of N994.98bn and N1.1tn respectively, from insertions alone. Even more concerning is the targeted misuse of agencies like the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (Lagos) and the Federal Cooperative College Oji River as dumping grounds for politically motivated projects. These agencies lack the technical capacity to execute such projects, leading to rampant underperformance and waste.”
The organisation also highlighted some of the most glaring anomalies in the budget to include 1,477 streetlight projects worth N393.29bn, 538 boreholes totalling N114.53bn, 2,122 ICT projects valued at N505.79bn, and N6.74bn earmarked for “empowerment of traditional rulers”.
BudgIT, then, urged President Bola Tinubu to “exercise stronger executive leadership and reform the budgeting process to ensure alignment with the Medium-Term National Development Plan (2021-2025) and other national priorities.”
They also urged the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to seek a constitutional interpretation of the court on the extent of the appropriation powers of the National Assembly, particularly its authority to unilaterally introduce new capital projects without the concurrence of the executive, while hoping that anti-graft agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission will “take action to track these projects and ensure Nigeria gets value for money.”
However, efforts to get the reaction of the House of Representatives were not successful as the spokesman, Mr Akin Rotimi, was not available for comment.
On his part, the deputy spokesman, Mr Philip Agbese, neither picked up his calls nor acknowledged messages sent to him on WhatsApp.
In the same vein, the Director of Information and Public Relations at the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs Julie Osagie-Jacobs, did not respond to the request for comment sent to her on WhatsApp on Tuesday by one of our correspondents, and calls to her line did not go through.