10 Important Changes You Need To Know About Kenya’s 2019/2020 Budget

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

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. County Governments were given Sh371.6 billion, of which, Sh 310 billion is the equitable share and Sh 61.6 billion conditional transfers
8. Sh.450.9 billion was given to The Big Four Agenda (housing, manufacturing, Health, and security
9. 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
10. 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.
11. 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