Nigeria's Budget Office: No funds released for PEAC/PFIPC due to spending controls

Nigeria's Budget Office has asserted that no funds allocated for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) and the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) were ever released or spent. The office maintains that the nation's stringent expenditure control mechanisms effectively prevented the appropriated funds from transitioning into public expenditure.

In a statement, the Budget Office clarified that the issue was not whether the National Assembly appropriated funds for the council, but rather whether the necessary legal prerequisites for expenditure were fulfilled. It stressed that an appropriation is merely the initial step in a legal process, and public funds can only be disbursed after meeting conditions such as Financial Clearance, lawful recruitment, payroll enrollment, Treasury warranting, cash backing, and procurement approvals.

The Budget Office detailed that these conditions were not met in the case of PEAC/PFIPC, thus the appropriation remained solely an appropriation and never became an expenditure. The council was included in the 2026 Budget after receiving an administrative code and an authorized establishment waiver. Although the council submitted a personnel estimate of ₦3.85 billion, the Budget Office independently calculated a provision of ₦802.98 million.

Despite the amount being included in the budget proposal and subsequently appropriated, Financial Clearance was never issued due to incomplete required conditions. Furthermore, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had not confirmed compliance with the public-service compensation framework. Consequently, there was no lawful recruitment, payroll enrollment, or salary payment, and the ₦802.98 million provision was never placed under the council's control.