There’s a fresh within the federal government as the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, openly contradicted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s claim that Nigeria had met its 2025 revenue target.
While the president had earlier declared that the target was achieved months ahead of schedule, Edun revealed that the government has generated only ₦10.7 trillion out of the projected ₦40.8 trillion for the year — leaving a massive shortfall of about ₦30 trillion.
President Tinubu made the upbeat claim while addressing members of the Buhari Organisation at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, insisting that Nigeria no longer needed to borrow to fund its budget due to improved revenue performance.
“Today I can stand here before you to brag: Nigeria is not borrowing. We have met our revenue target for the year and we met it in August,” Tinubu had said in September.
However, Edun painted a starkly different picture on Tuesday during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committees on Finance and National Planning.
The session was convened to deliberate on the 2026–2028 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), which President Tinubu transmitted to the House last Wednesday for approval.
According to the finance minister, the federal government had planned to raise ₦40.8 trillion in 2025 to fund the ₦54.9 trillion “budget of restoration,” designed to stabilise the economy, secure peace, and rebuild prosperity.
But he disclosed that actual revenue performance has fallen far below expectations, with total inflows now projected to close the year at just ₦10.7 trillion.
“The current trajectory indicates that federal revenues for the full year will likely end at around ₦10.7 trillion, compared with the ₦40.8 trillion that was projected,” Edun said.
He blamed the revenue collapse largely on weak oil and gas earnings, particularly poor collections from Petroleum Profit Tax and Company Income Tax paid by oil and gas companies.
Edun also pointed to underperformance across several non-oil revenue lines, deepening the strain on government finances.
To keep the budget running, the minister disclosed that the federal government had borrowed about ₦14.1 trillion during the year to cover the widening revenue gap, a revelation that has sparked renewed debate over Nigeria’s fiscal health.
