The House of Representatives has removed the N5 billion presidential yacht from the 2023 supplementary budget.
The House passed the N2.17 trillion budget on Thursday after the adoption of the report submitted by the chairman of its appropriations committee, Abubakar Bichi.
Bichi announced that the committee had reallocated the funds proposed for the yacht to the student loan budget provision to make it N10 billion.
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THE WHISTLER earlier reported that amid backlash over the N5 billion budget provision for the presidential yacht, the Presidency clarified that President Bola Tinubu did not request and does not need a yacht to carry out his functions.
According to Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, the Nigerian Navy requested it in its budget.
Earlier on Thursday, the Senate passed the supplementary budget which amounted to N2.17 trillion.
President Tinubu had requested the supplementary budget to address labour wage adjustments, security concerns, and other urgent matters.
Additionally, the President sent the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the Senate for consideration.
The sectoral allocations of the supplementary budget were as follows:
• INEC: N18 billion
• Defence: N346.1 billion
• Police formations and commands: N29.6 billion
• Office of the National Security Adviser: N39.6 billion
• Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security: N103 billion
• Service-wide vote: N515 billion
• State House: N28 billion
• Ministry of Defence: N200 billion
• Police formations and commands: N20.3 billion
• Office of the National Security Adviser: N10.3 billion
• Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security: N97 billion
• Federal Ministry of Works: N300 billion
• Federal Capital Territory Administration: N100 billion
• Capital Supplementation: N220.5 billion.