The 2020/21 national budget presented in parliament Wednesday is ‘part of the ammunition in Namibia’s arsenal to fight Covid-19, finance minister Ipumbu Shiimi said.
This year’s N$72,8b budget runs under the theme ‘Together defeating COVID-19, Together thriving again’, which according to Shiimi ‘summons the collective contribution of all Namibians, young and old, to defeating COVID-19 as a necessary condition for future economic recovery and prosperity’.
“As such, the budget aims to achieve four main goals; to save lives, save livelihoods, save jobs and incomes and to place Namibia in a stronger position to thrive in the foreseeable future,” Shiimi said.
According to Shiimi, the budget does so by: –
- frontloading the emergency response budget to the health sector to enable the sector to procure and deploy the needed infrastructure, personal protective equipment, pharmaceuticals, and personnel,
- deploying a once-off Emergency Income Grant to save livelihoods and jobs,
- improving learner accommodation and sanitation facilities at various public schools across the country to better cope with COVID-19 protocols,
- maintaining operational budgetary allocation for the continued provision of essential services and the refined development budget allocations for ongoing capital projects with contractual obligations,
- providing for off-budget project financing for critical infrastructure in the logistics and water sectors, and
- maintaining allocations for social safety nets as the first line of defence against vulnerability
“Beyond these targeted emergency measures, a modicum of policy reforms is set out to constitute pillars of the medium to long term economic recovery and transformation plan.
“The details of such policy measures will be finalised in advance of the Mid-Year Budget Review to be tabled in the Third Quarter this year,” Shiimi added.
