The Lower House’s Committee on National Budget and Patrimony will this afternoon commence budget hearings, starting from the City of Kigali management justifying its proposed expenditure for the next fiscal year.

The hearings, which will be held virtually, are meant to analyse the Budget Framework Paper, and consider projected spending priorities and fund allocations to different public entities.

Rwanda plans to spend slightly over Rwf5 trillion in the fiscal year 2023/24 – an increase of Rwf265 billion or 6 per cent compared to more than Rwf4.7 trillion for the revised budget for the current fiscal year, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Uzziel Ndagijimana, told senators and MPs on Wednesday, May 3.

The budget hearings will help to understand which public entity got what share of this projected national budget envelope, and where it will spend it.

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Overall, key priorities for the next fiscal year (2023/24) national budget will include strengthening the health system; increasing agriculture and livestock productivity; scaling up social protection coverage; and improving the quality of education, according to information from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN).

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Others are creating employment opportunities through investment in public works and support to micro, small, medium and large enterprises (SMEs) affected by Covid-19 through the economic recovery fund and manufacture to build and recover programmes.

Also, interventions will include support for Made in Rwanda; promotion of digital technologies to improve service delivery; improving access to quality education; eradication of malnutrition and stunting, and strengthening disaster preparedness and management among others.

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Data from MINECOFIN indicate that Rwanda’s economy is projected to grow by 6.2 percent in 2023 compared to 8.2 per cent in 2022, owing to global uncertainties, and by 6.7 and 7 per cent in 2024 and 2025 respectively.