By Alpha Abu
Officials of the National Commission for Civic Education and Development (NaCCED) have held a press conference during which they discussed with representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), issues surrounding the Citizens Budget Guide, a simpler form of the national budget produced by the commission for the reading public.
The booklet named “A Citizen’s Guide to the National Budget 2023’’ gives a simplified explanation of the budget including information such as “measures taken by the Government so far to mitigate the impact of the global financial crises on the population’’, “key revenue mobilization measures”, and budgetary support for the Free Quality Education Programme, as well as the Health, Water, and Energy sectors.
On how the quality of the health sector could be improved, it’s been stated that the provision of school fees subsidies, school feeding, rehabilitation of boarding facilities, and transfer of funds to Local Councils for devolved education services are some of the areas in which expending would have to be made.
It’s also stated that the government “will escalate the duty waiver policy approved by the cabinet in March 2022 to become law”.
“Government is developing a Medium–Term Revenue Strategy (MTRS) that will set the pace for policy, legislative and administrative actions to enhance domestic revenue mobilization in the medium- term and put the country’s budget on a sustainable path’’, the booklet states.
A breakdown of some of the budgetary expenses for this 2023 fiscal year indicates that the education sector will receive a total amount of NLe 2.13 Billion or 22 percent of total discretionary expenditure, whilst NLe 938.7 Million or 10 percent of total discretionary expenditure has been allocated to the health sector.
Capital expenditure for the year is projected at NLe 4.2 Billion or 6.3 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with foreign loans and grants making up NLe 4.2 Billion or 4.5 percent of the GDP, and domestic capital expenditure-NLe 1.2 billion or 1.8 percent of GDP.
On how the government is to manage the wage bill, the guide says the government’s objective in the medium term is to attain a sustainable wage bill level of 6 percent of the GDP.
To this end, the government is to develop a medium–term Wage Bill Management Strategy, “introducing reforms to strengthen payroll controls and management’’.
The event which took place at the Ministry of Finance, on Thursday 5th April saw NaCCED Commissioner Kalilu Totangi explained how the document was the third to be produced by the institution since 2021.
He expressed gratitude to Ministry of Finance officials and other partners for their cooperation and support in ensuring that the details of the country’s budget was well summarised which would make for easy reading by CSOs, the media, and the general public.
A video animation produced by NaCCED educating the public about the budget was screened for the audience.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (12/04/23)
