Apparently heeding the public outrage that greeted the announcement that the N5 billion has been earmarked for a luxury presidential yacht, the presidency has dropped the plan.
The House of Representatives on Thursday afternoon announced that the expenditure for the yacht in the 2023 supplementary budget has been transferred to student loan expenditure.
The Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Hon. Abubakar Bichi, made this known on Thursday while briefing journalists after the passage of the 2023 Appropriation Bill.
Bichi said there is no budget for the presidential yacht anymore because the money has been added to the budget of the student loan which has increased from N5 billion to N10 billion.
He said: “As far as we are concerned we don’t have that presidential yacht anymore. We have increased the student loan.
If you recall, the student loan was N5 billion in the budget but we have increased it to N10 billion.”
The Federal Government had planned to purchase a Presidential yacht worth N 5 billion after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved N2.17 trillion as the 2023 supplementary budget.
Reports say the proposed sum is under the capital expenditure of the Nigerian Navy’s budget.
According to the breakdown, the Navy will require N62.8 billion for its operations, with recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure gulping N20.4 billion and N42.3 billion, respectively.