The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has raised significant concerns about the 2025 federal budget, describing it as “grossly inadequate” to address Nigeria’s pressing social and infrastructure requirements, despite the increased overall expenditure compared to previous fiscal years.
In its recent publication, 2025 FGN Budget Analysis: Can the Budget Deliver a Major Economic Boost?, the NESG pointed out that public investment continues to be treated as a secondary priority in Nigeria’s budgeting process, receiving only the remaining funds after fulfilling recurrent expenditure obligations.
This approach, according to the Group, has repeatedly hampered the implementation of long-term infrastructure and social development initiatives.
Although the 2025 budget shows a slight increase in capital expenditure allocations compared to previous years, the NESG emphasized that this improvement falls considerably short of what is needed to address Nigeria’s substantial infrastructure deficiencies.
The report details that the federal government allocated ₦27.96 trillion, or 50.8% of the ₦54.99 trillion 2025 budget, to recurrent expenditure, including debt servicing and other non-debt recurrent costs. In contrast, capital expenditure, which funds essential public investments and infrastructure development, received 49.2% of the total budget.
The NESG acknowledged this capital expenditure proportion as “commendable” when compared to historical patterns, but highlighted that the actual monetary amounts remain inadequate considering the country’s infrastructure challenges.
“There is a pressing need to further increase the capital spending share and absolute size to effectively bridge Nigeria’s current infrastructure gap,” the NESG stated.
The Group also expressed concern regarding Nigeria’s low per capita public spending in comparison to similar economies.
With the 2025 budget of ₦54.99 trillion (approximately US$36.7 billion) serving a population estimated at 230 million, the per capita allocation amounts to merely ₦239,087 (about US$159.4) annually.
This figure is substantially lower than South Africa’s public spending of approximately US$1,957 per capita and falls well below the average of US$800 per resident observed in comparable countries.
The budgetary allocations for critical sectors such as health and education are particularly concerning. The federal government designated only ₦2.38 trillion (US$1.49 billion) for health services and less than ₦2.59 trillion (US$1.62 billion) for education services in the 2025 budget.
The NESG cautioned that such insufficient funding in these vital areas could negatively impact Nigeria’s economic competitiveness, human capital development, and efforts to reduce poverty over the long term.
“These figures indicate that Nigeria’s budgetary provisions are grossly inadequate to address pressing social and infrastructure needs,” the Group noted.
