JUST IN: Representatives boost student loans to $10 billion while eliminating N5 billion presidential yacht from the budget

The contentious N5 billion presidential yacht was taken out of the 2023 supplemental budget by the House of Representatives.

The House approved the report presented by Kano State’s Abubakar Bichi, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and then passed the budget on Tuesday.

After giving careful thought to the Appropriations Committee’s suggestions, the Committee of Supply passed the legislation.

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Following the budget’s adoption, Bichi told reporters that the committee had taken the contentious presidential yacht out of service.

He said that the N5 billion had been transferred to student loans, making the total amount allotted for student loans 10 billion instead of 5 billion.

In response to security concerns, the Committee also raised the Ministry of Defence’s budgetary allotment from 476 billion to 546 billion.

In addition, Bichi said that the minimum wage for workers was taken into consideration and authorised before being forwarded to the executive branch, pledging appropriate legislative monitoring to guarantee its implementation.

Additionally, the 100 billion dollars were kept for the FCT as requested by Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister.

Thus, the N2.177 trillion supplemental budget was approved by the House.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu’s proposal called for spending N1.5 billion on First Lady office vehicles, N5 billion on a presidential yacht, and an additional N12.5 billion on the presidential air fleet.

Despite persistent social media efforts opposing the supplemental budget, the bill was swiftly approved by the National Assembly.

Speaker Tajudeen Abbas declared that the bill would be signed into law by the president on Friday once it passed.