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House Of Reps Scraps N5 Billion Presidential Yacht
We have increased the student loan
Abuja, Nigeria – The House of Representatives on Thursday unanimously scrapped the N5 billion budget allocated for the purchase of a Presidential yacht.
Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi, explained the reasoning behind the decision in a statement to the newem.
He stated that the lawmakers carefully considered public interest and financial priorities in deciding to cancel the budget for the Presidential yacht. Instead, the allocated funds were redirected towards the Student loan initiative, increasing its budget from N5.5 billion to a substantial N10 billion.
Bichi stated, “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 House Committee on Appropriation also addressed national security concerns by raising the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Defence from N476 billion to N546 billion.
Furthermore, the Committee showed its commitment to the welfare of workers by approving the minimum wage for workers, ensuring that it will be transmitted to the executive branch for implementation.
Bichi assured that the House would provide proper legislative oversight to guarantee the 100 percent implementation of the minimum wage.
Meanwhile, a sum of N100 billion was retained for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) based on the request of the Minister of FCT, Nyeson Wike.