The federal government may decide to extend the 2025 budget into 2026 because several projects have halted approximately eight months into the fiscal year due to a combination of procurement delays, delayed capital project implementation, and a cash-planning portal shutdown.
The prospect of a rollover was raised during a stakeholders’ meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday by the Federation’s Office of the Accountant-General to assess the difficulties and advancements in executing the 2025 and extended 2024 capital budgets under the Bottom-Up Cash Planning Policy.
According to information obtained, ministries, departments, and agencies are required to submit a monthly cash plan using an online portal made available by the OAGF prior to signing any contracts. The OAGF reviews and consolidates this cash plan, which outlines the projects to be funded and the quantities needed, into a federal cash plan.
The Ministry of Finance is then tasked with approving the combined plan. After approval, the ministry grants formal authorisations to spend, or warrants, which are then sent back to the OAGF to be posted on the same website. Funds are then disbursed directly to contractors, suppliers, or beneficiaries once MDAs have uploaded their payment plans.
Nevertheless, since May, the prtal has been inaccessible for submitting cash plans for contracts and expenses in 2025. The issuance of warrants, the uploading of payment plans, and the release of monies are all impossible without cash plans.
According to a director-general in a health sector agency, “we are complaining that the platform has been blocked since none of us could upload our cash plans since May,”
The BUCPP, according to the Federation’s Accountant-General, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, who presided over the meeting, was created to make sure the government stayed within its means by needing warrants or authorities to incur expenditure before promises were made.
He charged that several MDAs were granting contracts merely because they were budgeted for, without considering cash availability, in violation of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and other laws.
Additionally, he criticised the practice of severely burdening cash needs with staff-related expenses and mobilisation fees while excluding funding for ongoing and finished initiatives. He claimed that as a result, some contractors were compelled to take out high-interest bank loans, leaving important government projects neglected.
Ogunjimi assured participants that previously captured commitments would be honoured. “For those who have awarded contracts, the contract has been loaded on the GIFMIS platform, cash one has been done, it has become a liability to the government that we are ready to fund and we will fund them,” he said.
But he made it clear that when the portal reopens, “any new entrance” will be treated as a new contract and must comply with the revised process. He urged accounting officers to start payment initiation where warrants had been issued, insisting there were enough funds in the Capital Development Fund to cover them.
Dr. Mohammed Shehu, the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, highlighted the importance of raising additional funds. He pointed out that monthly allotments given to states had increased from roughly N700 billion in 2022–2023 to N1.7 trillion at the moment. He also emphasised the importance of continuing changes, particularly in the tax code, in closing leaks and boosting development funding.
Steve Ehikhamenor, OAGF’s Director of Funds, explained the operational adjustments. According to him, the funding demand increased on February 28, 2025, when the complete amount of capital transfers from 2024 was automatically added to the 2025 capital budget on the OAGF platform.
A source at a federal ministry earlier disclosed that the implementation of the 2025 national budget is yet to begin. Speaking off the record, on the condition of anonymity, the senior official said all expenses and operations at the ministry were still being executed under the 2024 budget, which has led to widespread delays in payments to contractors and government workers.
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