The Federal Government has disclosed plans to submit the 2026 national budget to the National Assembly by September 2025. This was contained in the 2026 Personnel Cost Budget Call Circular obtained from the website of the Budget Office of the Federation by The PUNCH on Sunday.
Signed by the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Tanimu Yakubu, the circular, dated July 7, 2025, was addressed to ministers, permanent secretaries, service chiefs, chief executives of parastatals, and other top government officials, directing them to commence preparations for the personnel component of their budget proposals for the 2026 fiscal year.
It noted that the 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper must be concluded in July 2025 in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, to ensure the timely transmission of the budget to the legislature.
“As you are aware, the 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper should be concluded by July 2025 in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 to facilitate the submission of the 2026 budget to the National Assembly by September 2025,” the circular read.
It further directed ministers, chief executives, and accounting officers to carefully study the guidelines and ensure strict compliance with all instructions provided.
The Budget Office warned against unauthorised expenditure on salaries and allowances, stressing that only legitimate employees of the Federal Government should be captured in the personnel budget.
“MDAs should note that payment of salaries and allowances is for legitimate employees of the FGN only. Any unauthorised payments from the personnel cost budget will attract appropriate sanctions,” the circular stated.
To avoid discrepancies, ministries, departments, and agencies were instructed to validate their payrolls against records generated by the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.
The circular also introduced new payroll measures, including the mainstreaming of a one per cent Employee’s Compensation Scheme contribution for the National Social Insurance Trust Fund.
According to the Budget Office, “Please note that BOF has taken further steps to mainstream/integrate approved 1 per cent Employee’s Compensation Scheme for payment of the Federal Government Contribution to the National Social Insurance Trust Fund into the payroll templates of MDAs for preparation of 2026 Budget, in compliance with the Federal Executive Council Order EC (2023) 230.”
On promotions, MDAs were directed not to budget for anticipatory upgrades, as only promotions that have been duly approved and implemented would be reflected in the 2026 personnel budget.
“MDAs are not required to provide for anticipatory promotions of their staff, as such promotions cannot be projected with certainty. The 2026 personnel cost budget should provide for all promotions already approved and in effect. However, 2026 promotions will be provided for under Public Service Wage Adjustments in a service-wide vote,” the document explained.
Similarly, the circular barred the inclusion of consultants, contract staff, youth corps members, industrial attachés, and outsourced workers in personnel rolls. It clarified that allowances due to corps members would be centrally provided for in the National Youth Service Corps budget.
Any additional allowances payable by host MDAs would have to come from overhead cost provisions. The document read, “Consultants, contract staff, youth corpers, Industrial Attaches, Outsourced Service providers, Legionnaires, and such like should not be included in MDA’s nominal roll and/or Additional Information template (BOF/PE/21001) as they are not permanent/pensionable staff of the Federal Government.’
It added, “The allowances due to youth corpers will be provided centrally in the budget of the National Youth Service Corps, which is the body charged with the responsibility for paying allowances to youth corpers. MDAs are not required to include allowances for youth corps in their personnel cost estimates. Any additional allowances payable to youth corpers posted to MDAs may only be paid from MDAs’ overhead cost provisions.”
For health and education institutions, the government issued fresh warnings against fraudulent practices in staffing. “The staff of outsourced service providers must not be included in the nominal roll. Inclusion of staff of outsourced service providers in MDAs’ payroll will henceforth be regarded as a willful fraudulent action, and shall be reported to relevant authorities accordingly,” the circular said.
It also restricted duplication of consultants and lecturers across multiple institutions, insisting that each person could only appear on the nominal roll of their primary place of employment. Also, all federal health institutions were directed to adhere strictly to ceilings and quotas for interns, house officers, and honorary consultants as approved by their respective professional councils.
In a bid to strengthen fiscal oversight, the Budget Office announced the introduction of a centralised Personnel Cost Monitoring Dashboard linked to IPPIS and GIFMIS, which will enable real-time tracking of actual spending against approved provisions.
“BOF will deploy a centralised Personnel Cost Monitoring Dashboard linked to IPPIS and GIFMIS. MDAs shall use this tool to compare actual expenditures with budget provisions in real-time,” it stated. It further revealed that salary arrears requests would now be processed within 30 working days under a Service Level Agreement managed by a Standing Committee chaired by the Director-General.
To address disputes, a Payroll Discrepancy Resolution Committee will also meet monthly to reconcile mismatches between MDA submissions and payroll outputs. The circular outlined strict deadlines, directing MDAs to submit both hard and soft copies of their personnel budget proposals and additional information templates no later than July 15, 2025.
It emphasised that each minister or chief executive must initial every page of the proposal and sign off on a form of certification attached to the circular. The Budget Office also introduced a requirement for MDAs to submit a third-quarter personnel budget performance review report by September 30, 2025.
The PUNCH earlier reported that the Federal Government may extend the 2025 budget into 2026, as slow capital project implementation, procurement delays, and a shutdown of the cash-planning portal have left many projects stalled about eight months into the fiscal year.
The possibility of a rollover came to light at a stakeholders’ engagement in Abuja, organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to review progress and challenges in implementing the extended 2024 capital budget and the 2025 capital budget under the Bottom-Up Cash Planning Policy.
The PUNCH learnt that before any contract is signed, ministries, departments, and agencies must submit a monthly cash plan on an online platform provided by the OAGF. This cash plan, which sets out the projects to be funded and the amounts required, is reviewed and consolidated by the OAGF into a federal cash plan.
The consolidated plan is then sent to the Ministry of Finance for approval. Once approved, the ministry issues warrants—formal authorisations to spend—which are returned to the OAGF to be uploaded on the same portal. Only then can MDAs upload their payment plans, after which funds are released directly to contractors, suppliers, or beneficiaries.
However, since May, the portal has been locked for uploading cash plans for 2025 expenditures and contracts. Without cash plans, warrants cannot be issued; without warrants, payment plans cannot be uploaded; and without payment plans, no funds can be released.
A director-general under an agency in the health sector told The PUNCH that “we are complaining that the platform has been blocked since none of us could upload our cash plans since May.”
Presiding over the meeting, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, said the BUCPP was designed to ensure the government spent within its means by requiring warrants or Authorities to Incur Expenditure before commitments were made. He accused some MDAs of breaching the Public Procurement Act 2007 and other regulations, awarding contracts simply because they were budgeted for, without regard to cash availability.
He also faulted the trend of loading cash needs heavily with staff-related costs and mobilisation fees while leaving ongoing and completed projects unfunded. This, he said, had forced some contractors to borrow from banks at high interest rates and left priority government projects unattended.
“Without [a warrant], no MDA is allowed to award a new contract or process any capital payments in the GIFMIS platform,” Ogunjimi warned. He added that cash plans submitted between February and March for the extended 2024 budget had already been warranted, and that payments authorised but unused were now being finalised.
Ogunjimi assured participants that previously captured commitments would be honoured. “For those who have awarded contracts, the contract has been loaded on the GIFMIS platform, cash one has been done, it has become a liability to the government that we are ready to fund and we will fund them,” he said.
But he made it clear that when the portal reopens, “any new entrance” will be treated as a new contract and must comply with the revised process. He urged accounting officers to start payment initiation where warrants had been issued, insisting there were enough funds in the Capital Development Fund to cover them.
