FG targets September submission of 2027 budget after fake-agency scandal
The Federal Government plans to send the 2027 budget to the National Assembly in September, hoping to pull the cycle forward after years of late passage and overlapping fiscal years.
The intention is set out in the 2027 Personnel Costs Budget Call Circular dated 4 September 2026 and signed by Budget Office of the Federation Director-General Tanimu Yakubu. Ministries, departments and agencies must file personnel proposals by 4pm on Friday, 18 September.
The 2027–2029 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper was finished in July, in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, so that the full spending plan can go to lawmakers about three months before the year starts.
Implementation has slipped since 2024, with one budget still running while the next is being written. Officials have blamed clashing forecasts for oil price and output, the exchange rate, inflation and non-oil revenue. Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele says a committee of the Economic Management Team will now lock those assumptions together so the book matches the economy more closely.
The circular also tries to close a hole exposed in the 2026 budget. Agencies must attach the law that created them. Failure can mean rejection. That rule follows the case of the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, which received about N1.3bn despite having no legal basis. President Bola Tinubu ordered a forensic review.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said Adeniyi Adeyemi was never appointed, used a forged letter and occupied offices once used by the defunct Presidential Economic Advisory Council. A second unauthorised office inside the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation was tied to George Buchi Nwabueze. Tinubu ordered Nwabueze’s arrest and suspended three permanent secretaries. Amnesty International Nigeria called the episode proof of weak controls.
Personnel rules tighten with the calendar. Only staff on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) or the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) will be funded, unless exempted. Anticipated promotions stay out of ministry lines; approved promotions sit in a central vote. Consultants, corps members and outsourced workers do not belong on nominal rolls. A monitoring dashboard will compare pay to the budget in real time.
An earlier book does not, by itself, produce an earlier year. What the circular adds is a paper trail: an establishment act on every file, a name on IPPIS, a minister’s initial on every page. After a phantom council drew real money, that trail is the minimum the next budget has to show.
