House Of Reps Scraps N5 Billion Presidential Yacht, As National Assembly Passes 2023 Supplementary Bill

The House of Representatives has scrapped the N5 billion allocated for the purchase of a presidential yacht, in the federal government’s 2023 supplementary appropriation bill.

The lawmakers removed the vote for the yacht, and transfer it to the proposed student loan scheme, scheduled to take off in January 2024.

The amendment raised the N5 billion allocated for the students loan scheme to N10 billion.

The house appropriation Committee Chairman, Abubakar Bichi Abubakar addressing newsmen said the amendment was made due to the low votes for the student’s loan scheme.

Bichi also disclosed that the minimum wage for workers was considered and approved for onward transmission to the executive while promising proper legislative oversight to ensure 100 percent implementation.

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The sum of 100bn was also retained for FCT as requested by the minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike.

The house also raised the allocation to the defense from N476 billion to N546 billion.

The house eventually approved budgetary allocations totaling N2.177 trillion for the supplementary bill.

Recall that the proposal by President Bola Tinubu had included spending N1.5 billion on vehicles for the office of the First Lady, N5 billion on a presidential yacht and another N12.5 billion on the presidential air fleet.

There are ongoing campaigns on social media to stop the National Assembly from approving the supplementary budget, however, the bill has been given speedy approval.

Following the passage of the bill, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas announced that the president would sign the bill on Friday.