Members of Parliament have urged the country’s executive branch to implement lawmakers’ recommendations including addressing the budget drop facing social protection and agriculture allocations in the 2025/26 fiscal year. Lawmakers voiced concerns over negative impact on poverty alleviation and food security that may result from the situation. This was on Tuesday, May 27, as the Lower House adopted parliamentary inputs to the budget estimates for the next fiscal year which will commence on July 1. MPs want their inputs considered in the preparation of the draft state budget law to be presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, in June. Information from the ministry of finance shows that the government plans to spend more than Rwf7 trillion in 2025/26, which represents an increase of Rwf1.2 trillion, or 21 per cent, compared to more than Rwf5.8 trillion approved for the current fiscal year 2024/2025. The Chairperson of the Committee on State Budget and Patrimony, MP Odette Uwamariya, said that a reconsideration should be made to the overall social protection budget because it is expected to be reduced from more than Rwf165 billion in the current fiscal year to more than Rwf92 billion in 2025/26, meaning a more than 44 per cent cut. “We realise that with the reduction in the budget allocated to it [social protection], the goal to lift people out of poverty could not be achieved,” she said. The committee, she said, found that there is a need to increase funding for implementing development projects in Nyamagabe, Gisagara, Rutsiro, Kamonyi, Kayonza and Karongi districts, which the seventh Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV 7) – published on April 16 – showed were among regions with the highest number of poor people. ALSO READ: Rwanda lifted 1.5m people out of poverty since 2017 – survey Again, Uwamariya pointed out, though some areas were taken care of in the agriculture sector, the budget allocation to the sector is projected to drop from Rwf233 billion in 2024/25 to Rwf222 billion in 2025/26, a more than 4 per cent drop. “The committee finds that the sector has a great contribution to development and people’s welfare, thus [its] budget should continue increasing instead of decreasing,” she said, adding that this should be taken care of to enable the attainment of over 6 per cent agriculture sector output growth target annually under the second National Strategy for Transformation (NST2). Meanwhile, she said, the committee commended the increase in the budget apportioned to farm inputs – fertilisers and seeds – to more than Rwf49 billion (or more than 22 per cent of the total 2025/26 agriculture allocation) from Rwf40 billion projected in the current fiscal year. However, she said, despite the budget increment, an analysis showed that it could not be enough considering arrears owed to fertiliser and seed suppliers that must be paid. On May 8, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Yusuf Murangwa, said that the budget increase will mainly be driven by fast-tracking the construction of the new international airport in Bugesera, the expansion of the national carrier, RwandAir – as strategic investments – as well as implementing the pension reforms which took effect in January.
