The House of Representatives has rejected the controversial N4.79bn budgetary allocation for a presidential yacht contained in the N2.176trn supplementary budget for the 2023 financial year transmitted to it on Tuesday by President Bola Tinubu.
Amid untold hardship Tinubu’s Govt had included N4.79bn in the supplementary budget, the same amount he allocated for student loan. Nigerians had been outraged.
But passing the supplementary budget on Thursday, the House moved the sum proposed for the yacht to student loan, bringing the total sum for the scheme to N10bn up from the initial N5.5bn.
Abubakar Bichi, who heads the House Appropriation Committee, stated this while addressing journalists after plenary.
“As far as we are concerned, we don’t need the presidential yacht anymore.
“We have increased the student Loan. If you can recall, the student loan was N5 bn in the budget, but now we have increased it from N5bn to N10bn so that our students will be able to access that facility for them to be able to go to school and to be able to afford them,” the lawmaker said.
Bichi added that the committee increased the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Defence from the initial allocation of N476bn to N546bn.
He said the four-month wage award of N210bn for workers was considered and approved for onward transmission to the President for implementation.
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