By KINGSLEY OKOYE/IKENNA OSUOHA

President Bola Tinubu on Friday presented the 2026 Appropriation Bill of N58.18trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the appropriation bill was christened ‘Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity’.

Tinubu said that the budget was a culmination of two-and-a-half years of “painful but necessary” reforms aimed at steering Nigeria towards macro-economic stability, job‑rich growth and inclusive prosperity.

Key highlights of the 2026 appropriation bill, according to Tinubu, include total revenue of N34.33 trillion and total expenditure of N58.18 trillion, including N15.52 trillion for debt servicing.

While the recurrent non‑debt expenditure was pegged at N15.25 trillion, capital expenditure was N26.08 trillion and deficit, N23.85 trillion, at 4.28 per cent of GDP rate.

The president said that the budget was anchored on four pillars of consolidating macro-economic stability, improving the business and investment climate, promoting job‑rich growth and poverty reduction, and strengthening human capital, while protecting vulnerable groups.

According to him , sectoral allocations have Defence and Security at N5.41 trillion; Infrastructure, N3.56 trillion; Education N3.52 trillion and Health N2.48 trillion.

Tinubu emphasised that security remained the bedrock of development, saying that the N5.41 trillion allocation was key to modernising the armed forces, enhancing intelligence‑driven policing and securing the nation’s borders.

He said that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund had supported more than 418,000 students across 229 tertiary institutions, while health spending accounts for six per cent of the total budget net of liabilities.

The president noted that encouraging signs of stabilisation, stressing that GDP grew to 3.98 per cent in third quarter of 2025 from 3.86 per cent in third quarter of 2024.

He also said that inflation fell to 14.45 per cent in November from 24.23 per cent in March, while external reserves reached a seven‑year high of about 47 billion dollars.

To sustain the gains, he said that the budget would target a crude oil benchmark of 64.85 dollar per barrel, production of 1.84 million barrels per day and an exchange rate of N1,400 to the US dollar for 2026.

Tinubu, who stressed the need for discipline in budget execution, directed ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to adhere strictly to appropriated timelines and deploy end‑to‑end digitisation of revenue mobilisation to curb leakages.

He also called for better revenue mobilisation through new National Tax Acts and reforms in the oil and gas sector, alongside stringent performance targets for government-owned enterprises.

He said that the budget introduced a new national counter‑terrorism doctrine which reclassified bandits, militias, armed gangs and other non‑state armed groups as terrorists.

“The doctrine mandates unified command, intelligence‑sharing and community‑based peace building to combat violence that threatens national survival,” he said.

The president called for unity between the executive and the legislature to deliver full promise of his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, reiterating that the 2026 budget was not merely a list of numbers but a statement of national priorities. (NAN)

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