President Bola Tinubu has presented Nigeria’s 2025 federal budget, projecting an expenditure of N49.7 trillion and a deficit of N13.39 trillion to be financed through borrowing. The proposed budget, titled “Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity,” focuses on national security, infrastructure development, and human capital improvement.
At a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, Tinubu outlined the government’s priorities, allocating N8.97 trillion to defense and infrastructure. Security spending is set at N4.91 trillion, while N4.06 trillion will be directed to projects like the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Highway.
Education and healthcare were also emphasized, with N3.52 trillion and N2.48 trillion allocated respectively. The education budget includes funding for nine new higher institutions.
Revenue projections for 2025 stand at N34.82 trillion, leaving a deficit representing 3.89% of the nation’s GDP. Tinubu justified the borrowing plan, emphasizing its necessity for growth, adding, “The numbers for our 2025 budget proposal tell a bold and exciting story of the direction we are taking to retool and revamp the socio-economic fabric of our society.”
“In 2025, we are targeting N34.82tn in revenue to fund the budget. Government expenditure in the same year is projected to be N49.70tn, including N15.81tn for debt servicing.
“A total of N13.08tn, or 3.89 percent of GDP, will make up the budget deficit. This is an ambitious but necessary budget to secure our future.
“The budget projects inflation will decline from the current rate of 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent next year, while the exchange rate will improve from approximately 1,700 naira per US dollar to 1,500 naira, and a base crude oil production assumption of 2.06 million barrels per day.”
Lawmakers welcomed the budget but highlighted concerns about Nigeria’s rising debt and urged revenue agencies to intensify collections. Senator Victor Umeh lauded the budget’s focus on critical sectors like security and infrastructure but emphasized accountability. Similarly, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim praised its data-driven approach.
However, opposition party PDP criticized the budget, calling it unrealistic and claiming it lacks strategic provisions for agriculture, energy, and food security. They warned it could worsen poverty and insecurity.
The statement read in part “The Peoples Democratic Party describes the N47.9 trillion 2025 federal budget estimates as presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the National Assembly today as anti-people, which if implemented as presented will plunge the nation deeper into the abyss of insecurity, poverty and hopelessness.
“The party asserts that the budget as presented further confirms the insensitivity of the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress administration towards the plight of Nigerians as it made no meaningful provisions and investments for critical productive sectors of agriculture and food production, electricity, petroleum and gas, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, which are the real drivers of the national economy.
“The PDP states that the budget address sounded more like a campaign rhetoric laced with unsubstantiated economic statistics, false promises and conjured performance claims without clear-cut operable steps and mechanisms to address insecurity, resuscitate the economy, revamp ailing industries, shore up food production, increase the value of the Naira, reduce overall cost of living, create jobs for our youths and guarantee better living standard for citizens.
“President Tinubu dashed the hope of millions of suffering Nigerians who expected him to use the 2025 budget to make strategic provisions that will lead to the reduction in the cost of fuel, food items, electricity tariff and other essential goods and services that have direct bearing on the wellbeing of the people.”
The PDP urged Nigerians to observe that the President, in his speech, neglected to reveal the capital and recurrent details of the 2025 budget.
“The PDP is dismayed that instead, the budget speech was an assault on the sensibility of Nigerians when Mr. President claimed that the 2024 budget recorded a bogus 85 per cent performance without a breakdown of the component between recurrent and capital expenditure.
“Further distressing is President Tinubu’s claim that the economy improved under his watch even in the face of acute poverty, excruciating hardship, comatose infrastructure, collapsed productive sectors, deteriorating value of the Naira, alarming 34.6 per cent inflation and 40 per cent unemployment rates in the last 18 months as validated by official figures.
“Equally ludicrous is Mr. President’s voodoo economy claim that the 2025 budget will reduce the current inflation rate from 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent and improve the value of the Naira from approximately N1,700 to the Dollar to N1,500 without any indices for tangible investment in the productive sector and in the face of a staggering N134.3 trillion ($91.3 billion) debt accumulated under the APC watch.
“The PDP invites Nigerians to note that the President in his speech failed to disclose the Capital and Recurrent profiles of the 2025 budget. This has heightened public apprehension on the issue of full disclosure and transparency in government spending under the current administration.
“Given the crippled national productive sector, it is clear that with the N47.9 trillion expenditure including N15.8 trillion provision for Debt Services, the projected N34.8 trillion revenue with N13 trillion deficit will be financed by excruciating taxes and levies on already impoverished citizens and companies operating in the country.”
