ABUJA, Nigeria – The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a fourth consecutive extension of the capital component of the 2025 fiscal budget, shifting the legal implementation deadline from September 30 to December 31, 2026, to prevent critical ongoing infrastructure projects across the federation from stalling due to procedural expiration, parliamentary and fiscal correspondents reported from the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday afternoon, September 29, 2026.
The resolution was adopted as federal lawmakers reconvened plenary following their annual parliamentary recess, considering and expeditiously passing a bill to amend the Appropriation (Repeal and Re-enactment) Act 2025 after dissolving into the Committee of Supply, presided over by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu.
Okay News reports that House Leader, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, OON, who led the general debate on the amendment bill, explained that unexpected macroeconomic headwinds, procurement bottlenecks, and revenue disbursement rhythms had made it impossible for federal ministries, departments, and agencies to complete contracted capital works before the September cut-off.
Ihonvbere informed the green chamber that the legislative intervention was necessary to provide ministries with legal spending cover, ensuring that contractors are not forced to abandon project sites across the country while preventing civil servants from using an expired appropriation window as an excuse for stalled public infrastructure delivery.
The approval represents the fourth statutory extension of the capital budget under the ₦54.99 trillion 2025 Appropriation Act, which was passed on February 13, 2025, and signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, on February 28, 2025.
The original December 31, 2025 expiration was initially shifted by the legislature to March 31, 2026, subsequently extended to June 30, later moved to September 30, and now extended through December 31, 2026, effectively allowing capital disbursements from the 2025 spending law to run a full calendar year beyond its original fiscal timeframe.
Lawmakers maintained that granting the three-month extension safeguards public funds by preventing MDAs from returning unspent capital allocations to the treasury when critical roads, health centers, and educational facilities remain uncompleted.
During the same plenary sitting, the House of Representatives formally introduced three major executive legislative measures transmitted by President Tinubu for parliamentary consideration.
The first measure is the National Research and Development Fund Establishment Bill, 2026, which seeks to establish an institutional framework for scientific research financing across government bodies, consolidating fragmented research allocations into a central competitive grant pool managed under the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and funded through statutory linkages with the Nigerian Content Development Fund.
President Tinubu also transmitted the 2026 statutory budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission for legislative scrutiny, with the regional intervention agency proposing an aggregate expenditure envelope of approximately ₦1.75 trillion for the fiscal year, reflecting a marginal reduction from the ₦1.985 trillion approved in 2025.
The third presidential communication introduced the National Postgraduate Medical College Amendment Bill, 2026, which seeks to expand the statutory training mandate of the institution to authorize the formal award of Ph.D. degrees in Clinical Medicine to medical specialists.
Following the passage of the budget extension and the formal reading of the executive bills, the House of Representatives adjourned plenary to Tuesday, October 13, 2026, to allow standing committees to commence oversight investigations and budgetary screenings.
