The Senate on Friday fixed March 17 for final consideration and passage of the N58. 472 trillion 2026 budget presented to a joint session of National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu on 19, December, 2025.
The Senate Committee on Appropriations, at a special session held in Abuja, fixed Feb. 2 to Feb 13 for consideration of the budget estimates at committee levels.
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Solomon Adeola, also fixed Feb. 9 for public hearing on the budget proposal.
According to Adeola, a Professor of Economics from University of Lagos, Wasiu Adeoye, will make a power-point presentation during the hearing on the budget.
He gave the topic for the public hearing as: ‘Strengthening the Microeconomic Stability, Accelerating Infrastructure Delivery, and Improving Security through Fiscal Discipline and Effective Implementation of the 2026 Budget’.
“Budget hearing and engagement with MDAs starts on Monday, Feb. 2 to Friday, Feb. 13, where all sub-committee chairmen will invite all their relevant MDAs for discussion and presentation,” he said.
As proposed by Adeola and adopted by the committee, March 5 was fixed for an interactive session between members of the committee and economic managers of the Federal Government.
These, Adeola said, would include the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun and Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu.
READ ALSO:
Adeola added that Feb. 16 to Feb. 23 had been fixed for submission of reports on budget defence by the various committee chairmen for presentation of reports by the committee to the Senate on March 17.
He informed members of the committee that the senate wanted the budget passed on March 12 before he convinced the leadership for an additional one week.
“We must make sure we work within the time and ensure that the budget is passed, even though the leadership is asking for March 12 for the budget to be passed.
“Because I know how tedious this job can be once we start, so I try to convince them that we should look at March 17 and 19 so that we can pass the budget,” the senator said.
He added that for meticulous scrutiny and consideration of the budget estimates, hard copies of the 2026 budget had been printed for chairmen and members of the various standing committees.
The committee adopted the time table as moved by Sen. Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi) and seconded by Sen. Orji Kalu (APC-Abia).
Tinubu had during the presentation said the N58.18 trillion budget prioritises border security, technology-enabled surveillance, and community-based peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
The President also said that all multiple budget implementations would end in March 2026 and from April, Nigeria would operate on a single budget, backed by a single revenue cycle.
The appropriation bill was christened “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity”.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris has said the 2026 budget is a well-planned instrument to solidify the gains of President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, already yielding positive results.
Idris said this in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Malam Rabiu Ibrahim in Abuja recently.
“Our ‘Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity’ is critical.
“It is a commitment to double down on what is working, to solidify gains, and to ensure that the shared prosperity we speak of becomes a lived reality for more Nigerians, faster,” Idris said.
NAN
