The Budget Office of the Federation has clarified that the fiscal year is not necessarily synonymous with the calendar year, saying the calendar year is a fixed chronological construct of twelve months running from January to December.
The Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu in a statement issued Sunday acknowledged public concerns regarding the publication timeline for the recent Quarterly Budget Implementation Reports.
He noted that he considered it important to provide clarification within the broader constitutional and fiscal context governing public finance administration in Nigeria.
Yakubu added: “The fiscal year, however, is a juridical and legislative creation whose duration, commencement, and terminal date are determined by the extant appropriation framework enacted by law.
“Accordingly, where the prevailing Appropriation Act or related legislative instrument authorizes expenditure, implementation, or validity beyond the ordinary twelve-month cycle, the operative fiscal year correspondingly assumes that legally extended character.
“In the case of the federal government of Nigeria, the practical operation of fiscal administration has at various times departed from the strict January–December calendar cycle through statutory extensions, supplementary appropriations, continuing resolutions, rollover authorizations, and Appropriation (Repeal and Re-enactment) Acts.”
Yakubu stressed that the recent adjustment in the publication schedule arose principally from the Repeal and Re-enactment process of the 2025 Appropriation Act concluded in December 2025, together with the subsequent extension of the implementation period of the 2025 Budget to June 2026.
He explained that these fiscal adjustments effectively extended the operational lifespan of the 2025 Budget beyond the conventional twelve-calendar-month framework ordinarily associated with a fiscal year.
The director-general stressed that in substance and in law, therefore, the fiscal year becomes not merely a chronological concept, but a legislatively sustained expenditure window.”
He said this distinction is well recognized in comparative public finance jurisprudence and constitutional practice.
According to him, In the United States, for example, the federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 pursuant to statutory prescription rather than the calendar year, while in India the fiscal year historically runs from April 1 to March 31.
Yakubu pointed out that these examples demonstrate that fiscal years are policy and legislative constructs designed to accommodate macroeconomic management realities, budget implementation imperatives, and public finance administration.