For the second time, the Senate and the House of Representatives have extended the implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget to December 31, 2025.

This has led to fresh criticism against President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly.

Economists, financial experts, and the Organised Private Sector have described the repeated extensions as evidence of poor execution capacity by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. Others argue the move may undermine fiscal discipline and complicate tracking of budget performance.

The Red Chamber made the resolution to extend the implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget to December 31, 2025 during the plenary on Tuesday following the Amendment of the appropriation bill requesting an extension.

The Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, who presided over the plenary announced extension of the appropriation bill following its first, second and third reading expeditious passage. The appropriation bill was considered at the Senate Committee on Supply.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Olamilekan Adeola, led the debate during the plenary. Adeola, the senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District, explained that the extension was required to allow the Federal Government to complete ongoing projects captured in the budgets.

He also claimed that the Nigerian government does not have enough resources to capture the expenditures proposed in the budget. The appropriations committee chairman, therefore, urged his colleagues to support the extension of the 2024 budget in order to avoid abandoned projects of the Federal Government in different parts of the country.

Also, the House of Representatives on Tuesday passed for second reading, a bill seeking to extend the implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget.