Group spots 254 ‘frivolous’ items in 2025 budget

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has spotted 254 frivolous, inappropriate and wasteful items in the Federal Government’s 2025 budget, currently undergoing scrutiny at the National Assembly.

Critics highlight that these items, which include expenditure on vehicles, utensils, unnecessary office supplies, and recurring allocations detract from essential services and infrastructure investments needed to address the country’s pressing economic challenges.

The CSJ believes that by removing those wasteful and frivolous expenditure in the budget, it could save the Country as much as N954 billion, especially in the face economic and fiscal crisis ravaging livelihood of many Nigerians.

The budget, totaling N49.74 trillion, faces scrutiny for a projected N13.08 trillion deficit and a staggering N16.327trn allocated for debt servicing, which consumes a significant portion of the revenue.

Analysts argue that prioritising such trivial expenditure undermines efforts to combat poverty and improve living standards in Nigeria, especially as the Country grapples with high inflation rates and economic stagnation.

“With this scenario, the reasonable expectation is that every available resource in the 2025 federal budget proposal should be targeted at concrete deliverables aimed at reducing poverty, creating jobs, improving infrastructure and stimulating economic growth,” Eze Onyekpere, lead director, Centre for Social Justice stated in a note to BusinessDay.

“Indeed, frivolous, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful expenditure should be eliminated from the budget.

“A large part of the funding for the budget will be borrowed and it will be foolhardy to borrow and waste the borrowed funds.

“There are so many projects that are vaguely described and without location; a play on words using terms like empowerment and sensitisation, etc.”

Among the 254 frivolous, inappropriate, wasteful spending captured in the budget are: N63.8 million for State House rent,

N5.492 billion budgeted for the annual maintenance of the Presidential Villa and N6.042 billion also budgeted for annual routine maintenance of mechanical/ electrical installation, building/civil and environmental services within and around the Villa facilities.

The Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning budgeted N230 million to provide clean and portable water in 774 local government areas, which is far from its mandate. It also budgeted N115 million for purchase of UPS, desktops and laptops.

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The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security budgeted N2 billion for the provision and installation of solar power streetlights in rural communities in the six geopolitical zones, without specific location and no identification of beneficiaries. This is a replication of a project which handled by the rural electrification agency.

The Ministry also budgeted N935. 422 million for strengthening and coordinating agriculture budgeting for food security.

The National Social Investment Office budgeted N1.8 billion for home grown school feeding and N1 billion for TraderMoni and MarketMoni. It also budgeted N1.8 billion for N-power, though most of these programmes have been suspended by the current administration

Secretary to the Government of the Federation budgeted N2.4 billion to replenishment of pool vehicles, provision of buses.

Similarly, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy budgeted N952.075 million for innovation and coordination of the ministry’s policy program without clear impact expected.

The Ministry of Water Resources budgeted over N1 billion for the purchase of utility and Hilux operational vehicles. It also budgeted N450 million for the construction of rural access roads nationwide, which clearly is outside its mandate.

Additionally, the budget includes vague allocations under service-wide votes, such as ₦4.409 trillion, which lack clear specifications on how the funds will be utilised.

Onyekpere noted that Nigeria is undergoing a serious economic and fiscal crisis, including stagflation, high food prices, unemployment, and over 63 percent multidimensional poverty.

He noted that many projects in the budget were vaguely described and without location. He observed what he called a play on words using terms like empowerment and sensitisation.

“Indeed, frivolous, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful expenditure should be eliminated from the budget. A large part of the funding for the budget will be borrowed and it will be foolhardy to borrow and waste the borrowed funds.

“The State House and Presidency vote is suffused with bloated routine maintenance, renovation and repair work, purchase of SUVs and vehicles in the billions of naira. These are not priorities for spending borrowed money. Service Wide Votes continue the tradition of lump sum votes for vaguely described expenditure items, which at the end of the year, cannot guarantee value for money.

“The most troubling part of this proposal is that many of the unclear proposals are to be funded from debt. Borrowing and demonstrating a clear intent to mismanage the resources is economic sabotage of the highest order and should be discontinued”, he said.

According to Onyekpere, many MDAs have votes that are not in any way related to their mandate. This, he said, should be streamlined and budget approvals should be centred on mandated activities.