These reports will form the basis of the Appropriations Committee’s final report, which is expected to be presented to the Senate on March 17.
Nigeria's upper legislative chamber, the Senate has fixed March 17, 2026, as the tentative date for the final consideration and passage of the ₦58.472 trillion 2026 Appropriation Bill, setting in motion a detailed legislative timetable for scrutiny of President Bola Tinubu’s spending proposal.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Solomon Adeola, disclosed this after a special session of the committee on Friday, where lawmakers approved February 2 to 13 for the consideration of budget estimates by standing committees.
According to Adeola, a public hearing on the budget proposal has been scheduled for Monday, February 9, while an interactive session between the Appropriations Committee and key economic managers of the Federal Government will hold on Thursday, March 5.
“The Minister of Finance and Economy, Wale Edun, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, will be part of this engagement,” Adeola said as quoted by Channels TV.
According to the committee chairman, February 16 to 23, 2026, has been set aside for the submission of reports on budget defence by various standing committee chairmen.
These reports will form the basis of the Appropriations Committee’s final report, which is expected to be presented to the Senate on March 17.
Adeola revealed that although the Senate leadership initially preferred the budget to be passed by March 12, he requested and secured an additional week to allow for deeper scrutiny of the estimates.
“To facilitate detailed examination, hard copies of the 2026 budget have been printed and distributed to chairmen and members of all standing committees,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu had in December 2025, presented the 2026 Appropriation Bill, totalling ₦58.18trillion, to a joint session of the National Assembly in December, describing it as a “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity.”
The President proposed ₦26.08 trillion for capital expenditure, with a crude oil benchmark of $64.85 per barrel. Total projected revenue stands at ₦34.33 trillion, while debt servicing is estimated at ₦15.52 trillion.
Tinubu told lawmakers that the proposed budget deficit of ₦23.85 trillion represents 4.28 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and is anchored on an oil production target of 1.84 million barrels per day. The exchange rate assumption for the 2026 fiscal year is ₦1,400 to one US dollar.
A sectoral breakdown shows that defence will receive the largest allocation of ₦5.41 trillion, followed by infrastructure at ₦3.56 trillion, education at ₦3.52 trillion, and health at ₦2.48 trillion.
“We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes—because security spending must deliver security results,” Tinubu said. “To secure our country, our priority will remain on increasing the fighting capability of our armed forces and other security agencies by boosting personnel and procuring cutting-edge platforms and other hardware.”
Lawmakers say the schedule is designed to ensure a transparent, consultative and thorough budget process ahead of final passage in March.