On 13th, June 2019, during a bright afternoon, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich unveiled the Sh3.02 trillion budget for the financial year 2019/20.
Here are some quick facts on the 2019/20 budget
- The Sh.3.02 2019/2020 budget was Jubilee Government’s seventh in a row. It was also 10 billion higher than the previous 2018/2019 budget
- The government has merged the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises into Biashara Kenya Fund for the purposes of benefiting businesses owned by the youth, women, and people living with disabilities
- The government will also employ huge measures on cost-cutting by employing measures such as use of electronic cards for all public officers traveling out of the country
- Also, employment of public servants will be centred on majorly recruitment to key technical staff, security personnel, teachers and health workers as other means of cost management . The Public servants will also go into retirement from 60 years
- The CS said that Kenya’s economy had grown so significantly, “In 2018 our economy grew by 6.3 per cent, up from 4.9 in the previous year, ” he said adding “the growth is the highest to have been recorded for the past 8 years and well above the sub-Saharan Africa regional average growth of 3 per cent and the global average of 3.6 per cent.
- The budget deficit was on the scale of 5.6 per cent of the GDP which a decline from 6.8 per cent in this financial year and 7.4 per cent in the last financial year.
- County Governments were given Sh371.6 billion, of which, Sh 310 billion is the equitable share and Sh 61.6 billion conditional transfers
- Sh.450.9 billion was given to The Big Four Agenda (housing, manufacturing, Health, and security
- Other key allocations included Universal Health Coverage -Sh 47.8 billion, housing – Sh10.5 billion, Sh2.3 billion – Public Servants Housing Mortgage Scheme , Sh5.0 billion – the National Housing Development Fund
- Ministry of Industrialization was allocated with Sh 1.1 billion for the development of textile and leather industrial park, Naivasha Industrial Park and Cotton Development subsidy.
- Education sector got Sh 55.4 billion- Free Day Secondary Education Programme and Sh 13.4 billion for Free Primary Education Programme ; Sh 3.2 billion – recruitment of additional teachers.
Courtesy of Standard and Ministry of Treasury
