Despite delivery, payment for presidential yacht not captured in 2024 budget

There are indications that the payment for the controversial N5bn presidential yacht delivered to the Nigerian Navy since June 2023 may suffer further delay.

This is because there was no budgetary provision for it in the 2024 Appropriation Bill submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu.

Following the National Assembly’s refusal to approve the N5bn allocated for the yacht in the N2.1tn 2023 supplementary budget, checks by Daily Trust on Thursday indicated that there was no provision for it under the estimates for the navy in the 2024 budget estimate.

In the estimate, the navy got N192,486,785,619, out of which N33,364,499,710 would be for capital expenditure, N21,860,538,686 for overhead and N137,261,747,223 for personnel cost. In the breakdown of the projects, no mention was made of the yacht, even though the payment is pending.

This therefore raises concerns over the fate of the luxury boat and how the Federal Government intends to raise the N5bn to pay for the yacht, which according to the Nigerian Navy, was delivered to the country since June 2023.

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During their deliberations on the supplementary budget early November, the two chambers of the National Assembly unanimously reallocated the N5bn meant for the yacht to the Student Loan.

The spokesperson for the House of Representatives, Akin Rotimi, had said there was no record of legislative approval for the procurement of the yacht, noting that any procurement without the approval of the lawmakers was unconstitutional and was therefore null and void.

Amid widespread criticisms over the procurement of a luxury boat for the President in the midst of worsening hardship across the country, the Nigerian Navy affirmed that it ordered for the yacht during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The navy noted that the procurement of the yacht was long overdue, stressing that the yacht was for training and not for the pleasure of the President as widely believed.

Navy budgets N10.3bn for barracks construction, renovation

Meanwhile, the navy said it would spend N3.5bn for the procurement of arms, ammunition, webbing and equipment, while about N10.3bn would go into the construction and renovation of barracks for its officers and junior ratings.

In the breakdown of its proposed projects, the navy said it planned to construct barracks accommodation for its officers in Calabar, Lagos, and Navy Town in the Asokoro area of Abuja. It said each of the projects would cost N420m.

Similarly, it said it would construct barracks for junior ratings in Kano and Lagos, also at a cost of N420m each. In addition, it said it would spend N3.3bn on the development of barracks accommodation in Abuja.

For barracks renovations, the budget estimate showed that the navy would spend a total of N3.9bn on the maintenance of barracks in Lagos, Abuja and Calabar.