The National Assembly’s joint committee on Monday said it was pleased with the Nigerian Army’s proposed 2026 budget of N1.504,251,069,722 trillion.
The House Committee gave the Nigerian Army the assurance that it would make sure that the approved funds were distributed through efficient oversight of the proper authorities for the budget’s implementation.
Senator Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, made this announcement following a joint budget defense of the Joint Committee in Abuja with Lt. Gen. Waidi Shaibu, the Chief of Army Staff.
The Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Army held a joint session on the 2026 budget, and all members expressed satisfaction with the Chief of Army Staff’s presentation, he added.
Nonetheless, every member of the joint committee concurred that the primary problem is the funding release delay, which has an impact on all other MDAs.
I would like to reassure the Chief of Army Staff, however, that we are dedicated to working with him to achieve success. The Army is extremely important to our country, and we would help you with anything you require.
Hon. Aminu Balele, the chairman of the House Committee on Army, also spoke and praised the troops and officers of the COAS for their dedication and patriotism in the war against insurgency and defense of the country’s homeland.
He pledged that in order to allow the Army to fulfill its constitutional obligations, his committee would keep advocating for the prompt release of funds.
Balele promises the committee will continue to carry out its oversight role with the highest level of accountability.
“As we wrap up the 2026 budget defense, I would want to express my gratitude to Senator Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, my Senate counterpart, and his colleagues for working together on this national task. For their dedication and patriotism, I applaud the Chief of Army Staff and his staff.
I would like to thank Speaker Tajudeen Abbas for his steadfast support in my role as chairman of the House Committee on Army. We are prepared to and will persist in advocating for the prompt release of money so that you can fulfill your obligations, even though we are aware of the challenges associated with budgets.
In another development, Hajia Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, has asked for an increase in the N134.2 billion allocated to the Ministry for the fiscal year 2026.
This comes as the Senate, via its Women Affairs committee, expressed disapproval of the pitifully inadequate cash allocations allocated to the Ministry’s overhead and capital components of the 2025 budget.
The Minister made the request for an upward revision of the Women Affairs Ministry’s 2026 budget plan at Monday’s budget defense session with the Senate Committee on Women Affairs.
She claims the upward assessment will assist the Ministry in putting programs in place targeted at addressing the various issues facing women in the nation. She stated that an upward assessment of the Ministry Women Affairs and Social Development’s budget estimations should be carried out in accordance with the strategy and the requirement for additional domestic appropriations in the 2026 fiscal year.
But in her response, Senator Ireti Kingibe (FCT), the committee chairman, stated that while the suggestion was good, the executive branch should address the issue of inadequate funding releases first. We are not opposed to reviewing the amount allocated to your ministry in 2026, but we do object to the issue of staffing. We are quite concerned about the appropriations and disbursements of finances for your ministry, as demonstrated in the presentations you recently gave on the 2025 budget. “We have to start with that issue,” she stated.
During her earlier presentations on the 2025 budget’s performance and the 2026 predictions, the Minister stated that just N394 million of the N89.8 billion allotted for capital expenditures was released in December and was not even used. The release of funds appropriated for our overhead in 2025 was similar, with only N471 million out of N2.8 billion issued, she said.
The ministry was allocated N134 2 billion for 2026, she added, of which N2.1 billion was allocated for personnel costs, N131.2 billion for capital, and N810.9 million for overhead costs.
