Namibia's Budget 2015
Southern Times, 01/04/2015, by Magreth Nunuhe
Windhoek – Parents will no longer have to pay school fees for their children attending Namibian public schools as from next year, the new Minister of Finance, Calle Schlettwein revealed in Parliament yesterday to a resounding applause when he tabled the national budget for 2015/2016.
This welcoming news comes just two years after the Namibian government introduced free primary education for Grades 1 to 7 in 2013, as from next year Grades 8 to 12 will also not have to pay school fees.
"For basic education, we shall be able to provide both primary and secondary education for free with this allocation. Access to tertiary education will be further expanded through a formula based funding and enhanced financial assistance to students," Schlettwein
Schlettwein made the announcement just on the heels of an earlier surprise by President Hage Geingob who revealed at State House that government has increased old-age pension from N$600 (US$50) to N$1000 (approximately U$83 at current exchange rate).
According to the Finance Minister, the pension would further be increased to N$1200 by the second year, which is well above the national poverty line of N$530 per month and compares favourably with South African pensioners who receive N$1410.
The new government, which has just been inaugurated on 21 March 2015, unveiled a pro-poor national budget which highlights poverty reduction and improve social welfare as its second biggest priority after economic growth.
"It is a pro-poor, pro-growth budget with deliberate scaled up resource allocations to the targeted programmes for broad-based economic growth, job creation and poverty eradication over time," Schlettwein said, adding that the budget was also aimed at tackling the structural challenges that affect the development potential of the Namibian economy, while unlocking opportunities for jobs and wealth creation and improving the welfare of Namibians.
The third priority of the budget is the achievement of prosperity and wealth creation, which according to the Finance Minister would, among others, promote affordable and sustainable access to finance and means of production, while maintain responsible lending; develop facilities to support Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and increase the share of local ownership and value share in chains across various industrial and service oriented activities.
As has been tradition, the largest share of the N$67.08 billion national total expenditure budget for this financial year, goes to the education sector with an allocation of N$11.32 billion (18 percent of budget).
This is followed by defence and health sectors, which get a share of N$7.2 billion and N$6.4 billion, respectively.
The police takes home N$4.7 billion, while the transport sector gets N$4.4 billion, followed by the finance sector which receives N$3.8 billion.
The bottom three sectors are urban and rural development; agriculture and labour and social welfare, receiving N$3.1 billion, N$2.4 billion and N$351 million, respectively.
On the economic and infrastructural front, the Kudu-Gas-to-Power Project received the biggest financial boost with an allocation of N$4.3 billion to support the two state enterprises Nampower and Namcor, while the National Mass Housing Project got N$1.25 billion.
"Namibia has an impeccable record of according the highest share of the national budget to the social sectors, particularly education, health and social safety net systems. Commensurate attention is also being accorded to the housing sector," said Schlettwein, adding that better facilities and equipment would be provided for vocational training.
With regard to public finance management, the new Finance Minister announced the introduction of a mid-year budget review and pre-budget statement to be presented in October/November each year as a measure to assess the budget execution and budget policy implementation for transparency.
"Over the past twenty-five years, we have laid a strong pillar of macro-economic stability, robust public finance management and robust financial policies. This is the framework which I am honoured to preserve and improve as a foundation for accelerated inclusive economic growth and wealth creation," added Schlettwein.