• drought relief prolonged to June 2025
• tax amnesty extended
Finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi finally tabled the Appropriation Amendment Bill yesterday, against the background of persistent and devastating droughts.
As such, the mid-term budget provides for additional spending of N$3.6 billion.
Additional expenditure requests of N$8.3 billion were received for consideration.
When tabling the main budget in February this year, the minister unveiled a N$100.1 billion
budget, consisting of N$74.6 billion in operational expenditure, N$12.8 billion in development expenditure, of which N$3.2 billion was for projects funded outside of the State Revenue Fund, and N$12.8 billion in interest payments.
Reading the budget review, Shiimi emphasised that it is a necessary exercise to meet the most urgent and pressing emergencies.
During this financial year, the drought has been identified as one of the biggest issues, and additional funds were thus required to mitigate its overwhelming impact. The minister tabled the review following a two-day delay since Monday due to the lack of a quorum in the National Assembly. The mid-year budget review process accords government an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of resources’ allocations by taking stock of the collective implementation of the national budget, and to meet unforeseen expenditure to ensure it remains on course to attain annual priorities.
“In keeping with the fiscal sustainability narrative, we balanced these expenditure requests against the available resources’ envelope, cognisant of the imperative to manage the borrowing requirement,” said Shiimi.
Of the additional N$3.6 billion, the finance ministry provided an extra N$698.8 million for drought relief provisions under the Office of the Prime Minister. These funds were primarily to extend the food distribution programme to eligible communities.
“This allocation provides for the drought relief programme to be expanded to cover 308 750 households until 30 June 2025. This allocation increases the total drought relief budget for 2024/25 to well over N$1.4 billion. This is a significant resource envelope, which highlights the importance of instituting climate-resilience policies and measures to minimise the impact of weather events on livelihoods,” he said.
The finance minister further noted that the ongoing drought has far-reaching effects on the economy as well as the broader population, specifically the most vulnerable members of society.
“To mitigate the potential adverse impact thereof, we have made the requisite expenditure provisions both through drought relief for food distribution and support to farmers, providing funding for the Green Schemes, as well as strengthening the relevant social protection schemes to minimise loss of livelihoods.
We are confident that, in the short-term, such interventions will assist to improve food security at both household and national levels. Nevertheless, we will prioritise long-term measures to improve fiscal resilience against climatic events,” he added.
Moreover, the finance ministry is projecting additional revenue of N$1.7 billion for 2024/25.
Considering the low execution rates on capital projects, N$2.1 billion has been identified for reallocation.
Said Shiimi: “The projects affected by budget reallocations are primarily in the railways sector. Nevertheless, given the importance of the rail sector to unlock economic activities, we will ensure that sufficient funding is provided to the upgrading and development of the railways network, going forward. Furthermore, we will work closely with the Ministry of Works and Transport as well as TransNamib to ensure that the upgrading of the national railways’ network is expedited”.
Additional spending of N$3.6 billion includes:
• N$698.8 million for drought relief
• N$139 million to extend the Conditional Basic Income Grant
• N$450 million for the health ministry
• N$233 million for Green Schemes
• N$200 million to the Electoral Commission of Namibia
• N$187.8 million for school hostels’ catering and utilities
• N$140 million for the defence ministry
• N$86.8 million for the foreign exchange rate
• N$500 million to the Public Service Medical Aid Scheme
• N$386 million for the University of Namibia
• N$187.8 million to supplement the contingency budget
• N$88 million for the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund
• N$40 million to the Electricity Control Board