Uganda’s Finance Minister Matia Kasaija on his way to read the budget on June 11, 2015. PHOTO | FILE
Uganda’s Ush29 trillion ($8 billion) budget for the 2017/18 financial year will be read Thursday by Finance minister Matia Kasaija at the Serena International Conference Centre in Kampala.
President Yoweri Museveni is also expected to attend the annual budget reading ceremony at the Serena hotel where members of the Uganda Parliament are gathered.
Uganda’s economy is projected to grow at 3.9 per cent this year, lower than the 5.5 per cent initially forecasted, says Keith Muhakanizi, a Treasury official.
Ramathan Ggoobi, an economics lecturer at Makerere University Business School (MUBS) says drought, low commodity prices in the global market, and war in South Sudan -- a larger buyer for Ugandan goods-- are some of the causes of the slow economic growth.
Budget allocations
The education sector will get 11 per cent of the national budget.
Agriculture to take 3.9 per cent of the budget, while health sector to get 8 per cent.
Priorities
Amos Lugoloobi, Parliament’s Budget Committee chairman, says there are eight government priorities areas including:
Increasing agricultural production and productivity,
Private sector development for export promotion and import substitution,
Lowering production costs through infrastructure development,
Boosting domestic revenue mobilisation,
Intensifying fight against corruption,
Human resource development,
Affordable long-term credit for private sector, and
Energy and road infrastructure development to enable oil production by 2020.
