The 2025 federal budget has come under renewed scrutiny following revelations by civil society organization BudgIT, which disclosed that the National Assembly inserted 11,122 projects totaling ₦6.93 trillion into the budget.
According to BudgIT, the inserted projects account for 12.61% of the ₦54.99 trillion approved for the year, raising concerns about transparency and the effective use of public funds.
A closer breakdown of these insertions shows that streetlight projects consume the largest chunk of funds.
BudgIT reports that ₦393.29 billion was allocated for the installation of 1,477 streetlights, with an implied cost of ₦266 million per streetlight.
Similarly, the budget includes 538 borehole projects with a total allocation of ₦114.53 billion, translating to ₦212.88 million per borehole, a cost critics argue is vastly inflated.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects are also prominent in the insertions.
BudgIT’s findings indicate that ₦505.79 billion was budgeted for 1,122 ICT initiatives, meaning each project is estimated to cost ₦449.9 million.
In addition to these, ₦17.23 billion has been allocated for the construction of 53 community town halls, placing the average cost per hall at ₦325.09 million.
Educational and health sectors are not left out. The insertions include 561 education-related projects valued at ₦179.66 billion, alongside 319 health projects costing ₦420.09 billion.
Traditional institutions also feature in the budget with ₦6.74 billion set aside for traditional ruler empowerment initiatives.
Infrastructure-related additions include 1,380 road projects amounting to ₦1.44 trillion in total.
Notably, security spending includes ₦11.7 billion for the procurement of 24 security vehicles, which comes to ₦487.5 million per vehicle on average.
BudgIT has expressed alarm over the scale and nature of these insertions, stating they exemplify serious lapses in financial accountability and oversight.
