The House of Representatives, during the approval of the 2023 supplementary budget, has excluded the controversial N5 billion allocation for a presidential yacht. The budget was passed on Tuesday following the acceptance of the report presented by Abubakar Bichi, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee representing Kano State.
The Committee of Supply deliberated on the recommendations put forth by the Appropriations Committee and approved the budget. Bichi, after the budget’s passage, informed reporters that the contentious presidential yacht allocation had been removed by the committee.
Instead, the N5 billion originally set aside for the presidential yacht has been reallocated to Student Loans, increasing the funding for student loans from 5.5 billion to 10 billion. Additionally, the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Defence was raised from 476 billion to 546 billion due to security concerns.
Bichi also revealed that the minimum wage for workers was considered and endorsed for submission to the executive branch, with a commitment to ensuring its full implementation through proper legislative oversight. The House retained the requested sum of 100 billion for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as per the request of the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike.
As a result, the House passed the 2023 supplementary budget with a total of 2.177 trillion Naira.
It’s worth noting that President Bola Tinubu’s initial proposal included allocations such as 1.5 billion Naira for vehicles for the First Lady’s office, 5 billion Naira for a presidential yacht, and 12.5 billion Naira for the presidential air fleet. Despite ongoing social media campaigns to halt the National Assembly’s approval of the supplementary budget, the bill was swiftly passed.
Following the bill’s passage, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas announced that the president would sign it into law on Friday.