Siphakeme .Mnindwa
Farirai Machivenyika and Oliver Kazunga, Harare Bureau
LEGISLATORS and analysts yesterday expressed mixed reactions to the ZiG276 billion 2025 National Budget presented by Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, at the new Parliament building in Mount Hampden.
The budget was presented under the theme, “Building resilience for sustained economic transformation.”
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Cde Clemence Chiduwa, who is also the Zanu-PF legislator for Zaka East Constituency, said the budget was in line with what was presented by Prof Ncube as part of the Budget Strategy Paper and views obtained from budget consultations.
“On economic transformation, we are looking at the resilience part and the budget is speaking to that,” he said.
Cde Chiduwa said under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), the pillar on food and nutrition security requires investments in irrigation development and construction of dams and thus the 2025 fiscal policy statement speaks to that.
He added that Prof Ncube allocated around 10 percent of the National Budget resources towards the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, which is in line with the Maputo Declaration that stipulates that at least 10 percent of the national budget resources should go towards agriculture.
“On education, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education got around 21 percent, Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education got around 6 percent; the two will give you 27 percent, which is far much above the Dakar Declaration.
“On Health, it’s slightly less than the targeted 15 percent but it’s around 13 percent which is closer to the Abuja Declaration. So, you can see that our budget is pro-poor if you look at those ministries,” said Cde Chiduwa.
Mashonaland Central Proportional Representative, Cde Getrude Chibagu, commended Prof Ncube for prioritising the education sector, which got 27 percent of the budget (over ZWG70 billion).
“We hope this will go a long way in improving learning infrastructure especially in rural and resettlement areas,” she said.
Marondera Central legislator, Mr Caston Matewu, said he was not pleased with additional taxes proposed by Prof Ncube, saying consumers were already burdened.
He said Prof Ncube should have looked at increasing Government revenues from the country’s mineral resources.
Economic analyst Mr Persistence Gwanyanya, who is also a member of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Monetary Policy Committee, hailed the Budget saying it was realistic as it identifies and acknowledges the occurrence of external shocks.
Zimbabwe’s macro-economic growth trajectory has been negatively impacted by factors such as depressed commodity prices of metals such as platinum and lithium, among others, as well as the adverse effects of climate change and geo-political issues.
“External factors continue to pose risks going forward. We are budgeting in an environment of increased incidents of external forces, mainly changes in climatic conditions, geo-political factors and volatilities in the global commodity prices,” said Mr Gwanyanya.
“These factors have been affecting our economy and continue to pose a risk in the economy going forward and as such, the thrust of building resilience in the economy, but also trying to sustainably transform our economy, is seen as acknowledging the realities that confront us as an economy.
“As such in 2024, even despite the occurrence of drought, we still expect to register growth in the economy of two percent, which is expected to improve in 2025 to six percent and also reflecting the resilience that we are building in the economy.”
Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president Mr Denford Mutashu said he was impressed that Prof Ncube had decent allocations for health and education.
“The economy has gone 60 percent informal and this declines the capacity for the fiscus to generate more revenue in order for us to share the cake equally.
“But I am happy that the Minister touched on quite pertinent issues — for example, the health allocation is something that is so dear to my heart away from the retail and wholesale sector and general business.
“We need to revamp the health system, build more clinics, capacitate those clinics, hospitals and ensure that they have got the medicines and the drugs.
“On the education sector, I come from a background where I was educated by the Government through the Department of Social Welfare, so I am also very passionate about the allocation of funds towards education,” he said.
Mr Mutashu said there was a need to build more schools to reduce the distance that children in marginalised areas travel to the nearest school.
