The Federal Government has denied claims that it spent more than ₦8 trillion outside the approved budget, saying all federal spending follows the Constitution, laws passed by the National Assembly and other legal approvals.
The clarification came in a press release issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance on Sunday, 5 July, after public comments linked the allegation to remarks by the IMF Representative in Nigeria and the IMF’s 2026 Article IV Consultation Report. The ministry said the claims gave the public a false impression of how government spending is managed.
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The ministry said Nigeria does not operate a “shadow budget” and does not spend public funds outside the legal process. It explained that every withdrawal from public funds must comply with Sections 80 to 83 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as other laws approved by the National Assembly.
It also explained that some capital projects run for more than one budget year and may continue under approved rollover arrangements. The ministry said such projects should not be mistaken for spending outside the budget because they already have legal backing.
Government explains how spending is approved
The ministry said claims that trillions of naira were secretly spent lacked evidence. It said anyone making such an allegation should identify the specific projects involved and provide verifiable proof that they were carried out without legal approval.
It also explained that Nigeria’s public finance system includes several forms of expenditure established by law. These include statutory allocations to agencies and development commissions, debt servicing, approved intervention programmes, revenue collection costs retained by authorised agencies, and separate capital budgets approved for certain government bodies and the Federal Capital Territory.
The ministry said these expenditures are lawful, publicly disclosed in government fiscal reports and subject to oversight and audit. It said differences in how they appear in fiscal reports and annual appropriation documents result from reporting methods rather than unlawful spending.
IMF report cited for reporting, not legality
The ministry said public discussion had wrongly interpreted the IMF’s observation. It explained that the IMF’s comments dealt mainly with the completeness, timing and presentation of fiscal reports, not with whether government spending was legal.
It also rejected suggestions that the reported amount automatically increased Nigeria’s budget deficit. The ministry said a fiscal deficit depends on the gap between government revenue and total expenditure, not on the method used to finance approved projects.
The ministry said projects funded through annual appropriations, supplementary budgets, statutory transfers or other lawful financing arrangements do not, on their own, increase the fiscal deficit.
The government also referred to steps already taken to improve budget planning. It recalled that President Bola Tinubu had asked the National Assembly, during the presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill on December 19, 2025, to stop the practice of operating multiple overlapping budgets and instead adopt a single, unified budget framework.
The ministry said Nigeria is still improving the alignment between budget presentation and international fiscal reporting standards as part of wider public finance reforms.
It said recent reforms have strengthened treasury management, improved revenue administration, expanded the digital management of government finances and improved budget assumptions and credibility. The ministry said these efforts have received positive recognition from the IMF, other multilateral institutions, international credit rating agencies, investors and major media organisations.
While encouraging public discussion on government finances, the ministry said such debates should be based on facts and a proper understanding of Nigeria’s constitutional and fiscal system. It maintained that presenting technical reporting issues as proof of unlawful spending misleads the public and does not support informed democratic debate.
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