The House of Representatives has rejected the N4.7 billion budgetary allocation for Presidential Yacht in the N2.1 trillion 2023 supplementary budget, moving the amount to students loan, thereby increasing the allocation from N5.5billion to N10 billion.
Rep. Abubakar Bichi, the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation said this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the N35,000 wage award for federal workers had been approved in line with the request of
President Bola Tinubu, adding that about N210 billion was approved for the workers.
“I’m sure they are going to see the great impact as soon as possible. So, it has been approved by the House of Representatives,” he said.
He added that the committee also increased the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Defence from N476billion to N546billion following security concerns.
“Today, our committee has submitted our report, and the house after careful consideration, the house has approved our submission and the breakdown is as follows.
“As you know, the budget is about N2.177 trillion and Ministry of Defence is having N456 billion but currently they have the largest share because we know how important our security is.
“And as you are aware we have interaction with them yesterday. And they requested additional funding so that they can continue their work.
“So, we have increased their budget from N456 to N546,209,009,671,” he said.
He added: “Then police formation and command we gave them N50 billion while the FCT has about N100 billion.
”You know FCT is very important to us because we want to make sure FCT can compete with any city in the world, that’s why we decided to give N100 billion.
“Office of the National Security, we know how important that office is, initially it was N27 billion but currently we have increased their budget to N50 billion.
“While the State House, their initial budget was N28 billion and we still maintain their figure at N28 billion as well.”
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Food security, you know how important it is, you are talking about food security, and of course it’s very critical and important to our people across the nation.
“So, we have maintained their initial figure of N200 billion as well.
“While Ministry of Housing, you know how serious the housing deficit in this country, and in Mr. President’s agenda, he wants to build as many houses as he can.
“So, we have approved N100 billion for ministry of housing.
“Service Wide Vote, initially it was N615 billion but currently, we’ve reduced it from N615 to N515 billion as well”.
“For INEC, initially their request was N18 billion, yesterday we had engagement with INEC Chairman as you’re all aware. And we have maintained the N18 billion as well.
“So far, we have approved N2,176,791,286,033 only.
“So, this is what we are able to do today and will continue to do as much as we can to support Nigeria, to support the government so that our people can see the importance of this democracy.
Bichi while responding to question on the provision for purchase of Yatch as captured under the Nigerian Navy said “as far as we are concerned we don’t have that Presidential Yacht any more.” (NAN)
