The Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, has introduced the concept of investment budgeting into Nigeria’s fiscal policy debate, describing it as a critical strategy for mobilising long-term capital and accelerating the country’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.

Uzoka-Anite made the case during an engagement with the Senate Appropriations Committee, where she argued that the country must move beyond conventional budgeting models that focus mainly on revenue generation and expenditure allocation and instead adopt a framework that deliberately prioritises investments capable of generating measurable economic returns.

Her intervention has thrown a major reform idea into the national conversation, coming at a time when the Federal Government is pushing implementation of the Renewed Hope National Development Plan (2026–2030), which targets accelerated growth, inclusive development and structural transformation by 2030.

Analysts say Nigeria’s development challenge is no longer one of policy intent or political direction, but of scale, structure and financing.

They argue that the country’s ability to meet its growth targets depends largely on how effectively public finance can be redesigned to mobilise the volume of long-term capital required to transform the economy.

According to experts, Nigeria’s traditional budget framework—built largely around how government raises revenue and how it spends it—has become increasingly inadequate for a country facing an infrastructure deficit estimated in the trillions of dollars.

“Budgeting today is still designed around government consumption and public service delivery,” an economic policy analyst said. “But development is driven by investment.”

Under the traditional structure, budgets are organised around two pillars: revenue, which focuses on government earnings, and expenditure, which determines spending priorities. While necessary, experts insist the approach tends to prioritise recurrent spending and fragmented capital projects rather than a deliberate plan to build productive national assets capable of generating future growth.

Uzoka-Anite therefore proposed a third pillar—Investment Budgeting—a proactive framework that explicitly budgets for investments capable of generating economic returns, attracting private capital, and expanding the productive base of the economy.

Economists note that no country has achieved sustained growth or industrial transformation without large-scale, coordinated investment in productive sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, housing, energy and technology.

Tilewa Adebayo, an economist and Chief Executive Officer of CFC Advisory, said that while recurrent expenditure keeps government operations running and capital expenditure funds public projects, investment budgeting is designed to go further by creating productive assets that generate jobs, exports, future revenues and economic multipliers.

“Nigeria cannot industrialise or compete globally without treating investment as a deliberate budget item, not an incidental outcome,” Adebayo said.

Nigeria’s fiscal realities, analysts argue, make the case even stronger. Public revenues remain constrained, debt service pressures continue to shrink fiscal space, and infrastructure financing needs far exceed government capacity.

In the 2025 Federal Budget of ₦54.99 trillion, debt service was estimated at ₦14.32 trillion, representing about 26 percent of total spending. Infrastructure allocation stood at about ₦4.06 trillion, equivalent to roughly $2.7 billion at an exchange rate of ₦1,500/$, representing just 7.4 percent of the budget.

“At current allocation rates of about $2.7 billion annually, Nigeria would require more than a century to mobilise even $300 billion in infrastructure investment,” Adebayo said. “That is economically unrealistic and politically untenable.”

Under the proposed framework, an Investment Budget would operate as a separate budgeting structure dedicated to long-term growth-enabling assets. Unlike traditional capital budgets, it would focus exclusively on projects capable of delivering measurable economic returns and attracting long-term financing.

Supporters say such a budget would integrate private sector participation from the design phase, ensuring projects are structured to attract investors rather than rely solely on government allocations. It would also promote innovative financing mechanisms, including public-private partnerships (PPPs), blended finance, infrastructure funds, and regulated alternative funding models.

The framework would further allow project costs to be spread across the asset’s useful life while creating dedicated revenue streams—such as tolls, tariffs and lease structures—to support repayment obligations and investor returns.

“A $1 trillion economy requires private capital at scale,” Adebayo said. “But private investors don’t respond to speeches. They respond to bankable projects, credible revenue models, and clear governance structures.”

Analysts believe investment budgeting could help Nigeria build a pipeline of investable national projects linked to industrial corridors, power infrastructure, housing delivery, logistics networks and export-driven manufacturing, thereby crowding in domestic and foreign investment at scale.

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