An economist, and the vice president of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Chijioke Ekechukwu, has criticised the continued extension of Nigeria’s budget implementation deadlines, following the latest decision to extend the 2025 capital budget to December 31, 2026, saying the recurring overlap reflects weak fiscal discipline and could undermine investor confidence.
“Budget overlaps gives an impression that we are not a very serious country. That’s actually what I think. Iit doesn’t show that there is any fiscal discipline that we have.”
Ekechukwu said the continued rollover of budgets could also send a negative signal to domestic and foreign investors, who may question Nigeria’s fiscal discipline and ability to manage its budget cycle effectively.
“There are people who will be watching us from outside the country. Of course, when we talk about investors coming in, they’re going to be looking at these things to imagine that if these people are not disciplined enough to harness their budget cycle, then we shouldn’t take them seriously.
“I want to believe that everything we need to do should be done to ensure that we get back to the normal cycle of January to December. And when we say so, we just have to implement it. Implement meaning that we have to release the funds, whether capital or recurrent, we just have to release so that all those expenditures will be incurred within the financial year. Until we start doing that, we can’t be seen to be serious.”
He spoke against the backdrop of renewed calls by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, for Nigeria to significantly increase the size of its national budget, arguing that the current level of public spending is inadequate to fund the infrastructure and development required to achieve the country’s ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy.
Ekechukwu argued that increasing the budget without first expanding Nigeria’s revenue base would only widen the deficit and increase the country’s borrowing needs.
“It doesn’t make that sense. Because he didn’t also talk about the revenue base of these countries he was comparing us with, or the GDP size of these countries. When you want to increase your expenditure—because actually increasing the budget means increasing expenditure—when you want to increase expenditure, you have to be looking at what your revenue is.
“Today, we have a revenue-to-GDP ratio that is less than 10%, very less than 10%. We are looking at a revenue base that cannot actually fund anything. So, if you want to increase your budgeting, that means you are planning to increase revenue—increase expenditure, and if you’re planning to increase expenditure, you are also planning to increase the deficit side of your budget.
“If that happens, you’ll see that our borrowing appetite will increase, and we’re going to be borrowing. Today, we also know that the revenue-to-debt ratio is just that which nobody will want to say is encouraging. Now, for us to talk about increasing our budget, we should be talking about how to increase our revenue, like I said.”
Urging the government to fully harness underperforming sectors, Ekechukwu identified oil and gas, solid minerals, entertainment, hospitality and manufacturing as key areas with potential to significantly expand revenue.
“There are many other ways we can increase the revenue base. Most of them come from our oil and gas. Of course, you know that our solid minerals sector is still not contributing so much to the GDP and not contributing so much to our revenue.
“Many other sectors are not yet contributing so much. Entertainment and hospitality are still not doing so much to the revenue base of government. Again, if we’re having full capacity of our manufacturing sector, a lot of revenues would have been coming from the excise duty, company contracts, and things like that.
“But that sector is still not very optimal right now. So, if we make sure that various sectors do well, we’re going to generate our revenue base because many sectors are not doing well.”
Maintaining that a $1 trillion economy remains achievable, Ekechukwu said the target would depend on boosting productivity across sectors rather than simply expanding the national budget.
“We’re targeting a $1 trillion economy, it is possible. But there are many things that will make it possible. I’ve talked about having to have a very productive economy. If we stimulate the economy and every sector gets to what they’re supposed to be doing, we can reach that size of economy. We are still not performing optimally. If we perform optimally, we’re going to be growing the economy gradually; over the years, we can achieve a $1 trillion economy.”
Advocating stronger support for the private sector, Ekechukwu urged the government to improve infrastructure and provide affordable, reliable electricity to reduce production costs and make Nigerian businesses more competitive.
“Every economy of the world is built by the private sector. And so, if it is so, all we need to be doing is just to create that environment—that enabling environment—for the private sector to be able to do business.
“There are a lot of things that the government should provide. Of course, we talk about the power sector, the energy sector, making sure that they come affordable to the private sector.
“So, we need to look at the infrastructure that should be able to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria,” he said.
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