BudgIT: N’Assembly Inserted 11,122 Projects Worth N6.93tn into 2025 Budget

•Ministry source: constitution confers appropriation power on lawmakers

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The National Assembly inserted a total of 11,122 projects worth N6.93 trillion in the N54.99 trillion 2025 budget, notable civic tech organisation, BudgIT, has disclosed.

In a new report titled, “Insertions by the National Assembly in the 2025 Budget,” BudgIT described the development as an ugly trend that was accelerated in the ninth National Assembly.

According to the report, “A closer look at the approved budget shows that the National Assembly raised the recurrent non-debt budget proposal (which includes staff costs, operational expenses, pensions, gratuities, and other social benefits) by N299.75 billion, adjusting it from the proposed N8.58 trillion to N8.81 trillion.

“The recurrent debt budget (for debt servicing) was cut by N2 trillion, decreasing from the N16.32 trillion proposed by the executive to N14.31 trillion.

“On the other hand, the National Assembly increased the capital expenditure budget by N9.11 trillion, raising it from the initial proposed N14.85 trillion to N23.96 trillion.

“This indicates that the National Assembly introduced new projects or boosted funding for existing allocations by over N9 trillion.

“A total of 11,122 projects culminating in N6.93tn were inserted in the 2025 budget by the National Assembly, an ugly trend that was accelerated in the ninth National Assembly.

“The additional 3.18tn was added to the capital supplementation, which makes up N9.11tn in capital projects. 238 of the projects worth N2.29tn are in the range of values greater than N5bn in value.”

The organisation said, “We also noticed that 984 projects worth N1.71tn, and 1,119 projects within the range of N500m-N1bn, worth N641.38bn were inserted into the budget.

“We contend that the National Assembly has indiscriminately inserted projects into the national budget, many of which appear to serve narrow personal interests and political expediency rather than the broader public good.”

In what it called fragmentation of the budget, the report stated that 3,573 projects worth N653.19 billion were to be directly delivered in federal constituencies, while 1,972 projects with a value of N444.04 billion were directly in senatorial districts.

BudgIT said, “A deeper dive into project categories include 1,477 streetlights worth N393.29bn, 538 boreholes worth N114.53bn, 2,122 ICT projects with a value of N505.79bn, 319 health-related projects with a value of N420.09bn, and 6.74bn for the empowerment of traditional rulers.”

In its categorisation of supervising ministries, the organisation enumerated some anomalies in the budget insertions, including streetlights, boreholes, and ICT projects in various federal constituencies and senatorial districts, among others.

The report ascribed the ministries of agriculture, science and technology, and budget and economic planning with the highest number of insertions, with the ministry of agriculture getting approximately 39 per cent of all insertions.

It stressed, “Thirty-nine percent (4,371) of the projects worth N1.72tn were inserted in the Ministry of Agriculture’s budget, raising its capital budget from N242.50bn to N1.95tn.

“Recall that in a 2024 analysis, it was revealed that the National Assembly inserted 2,470 projects in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, including several MDAs under it. In 2025, the National Assembly inserted 1,777 new projects valued at N994.98 billion into the budgets of ministries such as Science and Technology, while 90 additional projects worth N1.1 trillion were inserted into the budget of the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.”

The report also revealed another anomaly as the allocation of projects to agencies that lacked jurisdiction over such projects, citing the Federal College of Fisheries in New Bussa, Niger State, which in 2024 spent almost N1 billion from its budgetary allocations for that year on the purchase of vehicles, tricycles, and other projects beyond its jurisdiction for communities in Lagos and Ogun states, among others.

BudgIT said that had been recurring over the years and reared up its ugly head yet again in the 2025 budget.

According to the BudgIT report, lawmakers have targeted agencies like, the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute in Lagos and Federal Cooperative College in Oji River for dumping politically motivated projects.

“These agencies lack the technical capacity to execute such projects, leading to rampant underperformance and waste,” it said.

However, reacting to the BudgIT report, a source in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning (FMBEP), one of the ministries cited in the report, said the 1999 Constitution (as amended) conferred appropriation power on the legislature.

According to the source, it is wrong to deride that power as “insertion”.

The source said, “BudgiT cannot arrogate to itself the power to interpret the constitution. It also cannot impose its perspective on the government.

“The 1999 Constitution, as altered, donates appropriation power to the legislature. You can, therefore, not deride that power as insertion. To be clear, the legislature’s power to subtract or add figures and projects to the budget is protected by the constitution.

“It should be understood that the budget is a negotiated document between the executive and the legislature. So, the executive was aware of the legislative alterations before it assented to them.

“This, no doubt, exhibits the president as a democratic person who understands the principle of separation of powers within the context of coexistence and collaboration for the smooth running of government.”

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