The House of Representatives re-allocated the N5 billion earmarked for the presidential yacht to student loan in the supplementary budget.

The House of Representatives has dropped the N5 billion presidential yacht from the 2023 supplementary budget.

The Chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi (APC, Kano), announced this on Thursday after the passage of the N2.17 trillion supplementary budget by the House.

Mr Bichi, while speaking to journalists, said the committee removed the item and moved the money to the student loan section to make it N10 billion.

"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," he said.

The N5 billion for the presidential yacht was listed under the budget of the Nigerian Navy but was moved to the student loan section by the House apparently after the public outrage that trailed the allocation.

The Higher Education Act signed into law by President Tinubu in June was supposed to take off in September but the president announced recently that the implementation had now been scheduled for January 2024.

The Education Loan Fund was created by an Act and is to be domiciled and managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Committee retains N28 billion State House budget

However, the House ignored public outcry and retained the N28 billion allocated to the State House.

The president has been under fire for budgeting N28 billion for the purchase of luxury cars for himself, and the first lady, as well as the renovation of the president's residence among other spending for the State House.

The government also plans to spend another N2.9 billion on Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) for the Presidential Villa, and another N2.9 billion to replace operational vehicles for the presidency.