The Senate has approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to borrow ₦1.15 trillion from the domestic debt market to finance the remaining shortfall in the 2025 budget.
The approval came on Wednesday following the adoption of a report by the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt during plenary.
According to the committee’s findings, the 2025 Appropriation Act provides for total spending of ₦59.99 trillion — an increase of ₦5.25 trillion over the ₦54.74 trillion initially proposed by the Executive.
The report explained that this adjustment resulted in a total budget deficit of ₦14.10 trillion. Out of that amount, ₦12.95 trillion had already been approved for borrowing, leaving an unfunded gap of ₦1.15 trillion (₦1,147,462,863,321).
President Tinubu, in a letter dated November 4, 2025, had sought the National Assembly’s consent for fresh domestic borrowing to bridge the funding gap and ensure the full implementation of government programmes and projects under the 2025 fiscal plan.
In a related move, the Senate also adopted a motion sponsored by Senator Abdul Ningi, mandating the Committee on Appropriations to tighten its oversight mechanisms to guarantee that the borrowed funds are “appropriately utilised in the 2025 fiscal year and applied strictly for their approved purposes.”
The latest approval raises the total borrowing component of the 2025 budget to nearly ₦14.1 trillion, underscoring the Federal Government’s increasing reliance on the domestic debt market to fund major developmental projects amid persistent revenue shortfalls.
