GOV’T ALLOCATES D13.4 BILLION FOR DEBT SERVICE IN 2026 DRAFT BUDGET

The government’s new draft budget which Finance Minister Seedy Keita will table before lawmakers today, dedicates over 22 percent of the total government revenue to debt payment.

The budget projects total spending to be at D59,361,094,416 with D13,458,758,357 of that figure earmarked for debt servicing. This outpaces allocations for agriculture at D1,771,186,304, education at D5,908,138,241 and health at D3,141,774,298 and youth and sports at D146,536,557 respectively.

For a second year running, debt service gets the highest allocation in the budget with D11,017,788,639 allocated in 2025.

Debt interest is also projected to increase from D5.8 billion in 2025 to D6,898,801 in 2026.

The total appropriation budget is estimated at D43,490,961,954, grants at D14, 413,971,771 and loans at D1,456,160,691.

D20,171, 876,361 has been earmarked as the development budget with D25,730,459,698 proposed as the recurrent budget. 

Allocation for other sectors
The draft budget also dedicated allocations to the following institutions as follows: Office of the President D740,490,804; Office of the Vice President D370,087,259; IEC D640,875,951; National Assembly D599,160,811; Judiciary D406,747,976; Ministry of Foreign Affairs D2,108,507,020; Centralised Services D1,177,973,522; Ministry of Works D2,033,151, 105; Ministry of Higher Education D1,312,264,429; Ministry of the Interior D2,374,977,711; Ministry of Defence D1,264,996,914; and pensions and gratuities D722,500,000.

Source: The Standard