2026 budget: NASS to spend N344.8bn on Senators, Reps, others’ salaries, allowances

…as lawmakers plan sectoral defence by MDAs

The National Assembly’s personnel cost in the 2026 budget remains at N344.85 billion, according to details released by the Budget Office of the Federation.

The allocation will cover the salaries and allowances of 109 senators, 360 members of the House of Representatives, and about 5,000 legislative staff and political aides.

The total 2026 budget of N58.47 trillion passed second reading in both the Senate and the House of Representatives on December 19, 2025, and now awaits sectoral defence by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The N344.85 billion allocated to the National Assembly excludes overhead costs and capital components, which, when added, could raise the total proposal for the legislature and its organs to over N500 billion.

Findings by the Nigerian Tribune showed that the personnel vote for the legislature in 2025 was also N344.85 billion, representing the highest allocation for three consecutive budget years — 2024, 2025 and 2026 — since the return to democratic governance in 1999.

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In 2024, President Bola Tinubu had originally proposed N197.93 billion for the legislature, but the figure was increased to N344.85 billion by the time the budget was passed.

The same figure has now been retained as personnel spending for the legislature in both 2025 and 2026.

Based on the expenditure pattern of the National Assembly, the funds will be shared among the Senate, the House of Representatives, the National Assembly bureaucracy, the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), and the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO).

Available documents show that the National Assembly’s budget was N2.2 billion in 1999, increased to N29.5 billion in 2000, and stood at N28.2 billion in 2002 before dropping to N23.3 billion in 2003.

Funding for the legislature and its affiliated bodies began to rise again in 2004, when the budget increased to N34.7 billion, followed by N55.4 billion in 2005, before dropping to N45 billion in 2006.

The budget rose to N60 billion in 2007, N73.7 billion in 2008, N123 billion in 2009, and N154 billion in 2010.

Findings revealed that in 2011, following public outcry over the perceived high cost of running the National Assembly, the budget dropped to N111 billion, but rose again to N150 billion in 2012.

Between 2012 and 2014, the National Assembly’s budget remained at N150 billion, before another wave of public criticism reduced it to N120 billion in 2015, N115 billion in 2016, and then N125 billion in 2017.

Checks by the Nigerian Tribune showed that after an increase to N139.5 billion in 2018, the budget dropped again to N128 billion in both 2019 and 2020.

It was further gathered that by 2021, the budget rose to N134 billion, N139 billion in 2022, and N228.1 billion in 2023, excluding a separate supplementary appropriation of N70 billion in 2023.