The largest budget ever tabled by the MoF

The N$84.6 billion budget for the financial year (FY) 23/24 that was recently tabled by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi is the largest budget ever tabled by ministry of finance, according to IJG Securities.Projected expenditure for the current financial period (FY22/23) was revised upwards to N$74.88 billion.Shiimi on Wednesday announced an increase in the old age, disability, and orphan and vulnerable children grant by N$100 per month, effective from 1 April 2023.In addition, the disability grant for beneficiaries under the age of 18 has been increased from N$250 to N$1 400 per month.A total amount of N$69.8 million has been budgeted to expand coverage of the orphan and vulnerable child grant to about 30 000 eligible children who are currently on the waiting list. These initiatives are in addition to the increase in the monthly conditional income grant of former food bank recipients from N$500 to N$600 that was announced in October 2022.In total, social grants will cost the government N$10.5 billion for the financial year (FY) 2023/24. According to Simonis Storm, social grants have increased significantly, and now take up 9.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) and 18.8% of the budget, approximately 14% of the budgets in prior years.Meanwhile, Cirrus Capital said: “We believe this increases in social transfers provide substantial benefit at relatively little additional cost. Given the inflation and interest rate movements over the past year, this adjustments are needed.”According to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), inflation averaged 6.1% in 2022 and came in at 7% in January 2023. The Bank of Namibia (BoN) recently announced a 25 basis points increase in the repo rate from 6.75% to 7%, hiking the prime lending rate from 10.5% to 10.75%.In addition, a total of N$706 million has been allocated for the Namibia Statistics Agency to conduct the long overdue National Population and Housing Census.Moreover, provisions to the tune of more than N$295 million have been made to enable the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to conduct the mandatory General Registration of Voters (GRV) as well as voters’ education during the course of FY2023/24.“Dedicating the funds for a long-overdue census is a positive step, although it is simply shocking that Namibia has gone so many years without official measures for key socio-economic data. Ensuring sufficient funding for the elections ahead of time also should ensure things run smoothly, unlike with the census,” Cirrus Capital said. -phillep@nmh.com.na

The largest budget ever tabled by the MoF

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The largest budget ever tabled by the MoF

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