Debt service and personnel costs have swallowed more than the Federal Government’s total revenue for the first seven months of 2025, even as receipts fell sharply below target and capital projects suffered deep cuts.
An analysis of the 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, released on Wednesday on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation, showed that between January and July, the Federal Government earned N13.67tn as aggregate revenue, compared with a pro rata target of N23.85tn.
That left a revenue gap of N10.19tn, representing a shortfall of about 42.7 per cent. This shortfall occurred amid earlier claims by President Bola Tinubu in September when he said that Nigeria had met its revenue target for 2025 ahead of schedule and would no longer rely on borrowing to fund its budget.
Addressing stakeholders of The Buhari Organisation who visited him at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Tinubu said his administration’s non-oil revenue drive had yielded enough to meet this year’s projections by August, reducing Nigeria’s dependence on external loans
