No fewer than 13 State Houses of Assembly across the country have injected over N1tn into the 2026 budgets of their states, following legislative reviews and amendments to appropriation bills presented by governors, findings by Saturday PUNCH have shown.

The figure emerged from an analysis of the 2026 budget proposals submitted by governors and the final appropriation laws passed by the assemblies, with the gaps reflecting legislative additions and adjustments.

The development comes amid long-standing and persistent public calls for a reduction in the cost of governance, driven by concerns over mounting fiscal strain and the huge debt-servicing burden facing sub-national governments.

Yearly, state governors prepare annual budget proposals, usually tagged appropriation bills, and transmit them to the Assembly for consideration, amendment and approval.

The proposals are broadly split into recurrent expenditure, which covers personnel costs, overheads, pensions and routine government operations, and capital expenditure, which caters for infrastructure and development projects.

In the first half of 2025, about 20 states of the federation borrowed roughly N458bn, according to their second-quarter 2025 budget implementation reports.

Within the same period, the states spent about N235.58bn on servicing external debt, representing a sharp increase of N95.65bn, or 68.4 per cent, compared with the N139.92bn recorded in the corresponding half of 2024.

This year, 10 states are also planning to source about N4.287tn, largely from loans and grants, to fund various budget deficits.

Owing to rising concerns over state insolvency, there have been repeated calls for assemblies to cut the cost of governance, particularly by trimming budget sizes to rein in deficits often financed through foreign and domestic borrowing.

However, this has not been the case, as lawmakers in some states have continued to jack up budget estimates submitted by governors, further deepening annual deficits.

In 2025 alone, about 15 state assemblies increased their states’ budgets by a staggering N470bn, escalating expenditure for the year despite persistent calls for restraint.

The states that expanded their budgets include Bayelsa, Ondo, Gombe, Edo, Oyo, Osun, Katsina, Ebonyi, Delta, Taraba, Zamfara, Plateau, Bauchi, Borno and Cross River.

As of the time of filing this report, the 2026 budgets of about 30 states had been signed into law, with roughly four still undergoing legislative scrutiny and assessment.

Nevertheless, no fewer than 13 of the 36 state assemblies have collectively added about N866bn to their states’ budgets for the year, with some of the increments channelled into recurrent spending.

While Borno, Ebonyi, Kwara and Sokoto assemblies are yet to pass their states’ budgets, about 17 others did not alter the size of the appropriation bills submitted by governors.

They include Oyo, Enugu, Kogi, Plateau, Katsina, Kaduna, Abia, Imo, Adamawa, Edo, Bauchi, Jigawa, Ogun, Kebbi, Ekiti, Yobe and Zamfara.

State by state breakdown

States with expanded budgets include Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Benue, Gombe, Osun, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River, Ondo, Nasarawa and Niger.

Notably, assemblies in six of these states had similarly inflated their budgets in the previous fiscal year, underscoring a continuing trend.

Leading the pack is the Lagos State House of Assembly, which added about N207.51bn to the state’s 2026 appropriation bill earlier presented by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

The lawmakers increased the budget estimate from N4.237tn to N4.44tn.

Recall that the assembly also raised the state’s 2025 appropriation bill by N360.88bn, taking the estimate from the N3.005tn submitted by Governor Sanwo-Olu in November 2024 to N3.366tn, which was eventually signed into law.

Of all the legislatures, the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly made the second largest additions, raising the budget estimate from the N1.39tn presented by the governor to N1.58tn, an increase of N194bn, representing about a 14 per cent spike.

The increase was spread across both capital and recurrent components.

In the initial proposal submitted in November, recurrent expenditure stood at N354bn, but this was raised to N416.5bn in the amended version, while capital spending increased from N1.035tn to N1.167tn.

The Cross River State Assembly, which inflated the state’s 2025 budget by N40bn, significantly ramped up additions this year, inserting about N180bn, the second highest increase among the states.

The governor had presented a N780.59bn proposal late last year, but lawmakers raised it to N961bn, which has since been signed into law by Governor Bassey Otu.

The Kano State Assembly recorded the third-highest increase, raising the budget from N1.368tn submitted by Governor Abba Yusuf to N1.477tn, a 7.8 per cent increase.

Benue followed, with lawmakers adding N89.5bn to its 2026 budget, raising it from N605.51bn to N695.01bn.

Next was Gombe State, where the assembly added N82bn, increasing the budget from N535.69bn to N617.95bn. In 2025, the lawmakers had similarly raised the state’s budget by N49bn.

The Delta State Assembly, which added N43bn last year, increased its adjustments to N65bn in 2026, raising the budget from N1.664tn to N1.729tn.

Niger and Ondo assemblies also increased their budget estimates by N40bn and N31.6bn respectively. The Ondo legislature had added N43.4bn in the previous year.

States with relatively smaller additions include Osun (N17.7bn), Anambra (N9bn), Bayelsa (N18.629bn) and Nasarawa (N27.7bn).

The recurring pattern

Saturday PUNCH findings further showed that the trend of legislative upward reviews is not limited to the states, as the federal legislature has, over the years, raised national budget estimates beyond executive proposals.

In March 2024, the National Assembly increased the 2024 budget from the N27.5tn proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7tn, inserting 7,447 constituency projects valued at N2.24tn, according to BudgIT.

The civic-tech non-profit organisation, while criticising the move, said most of the inserted projects lacked “national significance” and were tailored to serve narrow personal interests.

The pattern persisted in the 2025 national budget.

President Tinubu had, in December 2024, presented a N49.7tn proposal to the National Assembly.

In February 2025, the President submitted a revised proposal of N54.2tn, citing additional revenues from the defunct Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigerian Customs Service and other related agencies.

However, the federal legislature passed the budget at N54.99tn on February 13, adding about N790bn to the revised executive figure.

Experts are of the view that this legislative practice will further widen fiscal deficits by expanding the gap between projected revenues and actual expenditure.

Speaking to Saturday PUNCH, a Professor of Economics at Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Taiwo Owoeye, said with most states grappling with weak internally generated revenue bases, the additional spending pressure, which is often financed through increased borrowing, will deepen debt vulnerabilities.

Beyond this, the analyst said the practice would escalate the cost of governance at a time of persistent public calls for fiscal restraint as rising recurrent expenditure, particularly on personnel and overheads, erodes fiscal flexibility and constrains states’ capacity to respond to economic shocks. (PUNCH)

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