Rwanda’s Minister of Finance, Uzziel Ndagijimana (pictured), presented, on June 22, to lawmakers the 2020-21 draft budget adopted by the government to revive the economy in a post-Covid cotext. For the next year starting July 1^st, the Rwandan government eyes a $3.4 billion budget.

The new budget aligns with the country’s economic recovery plan after the pandemic and will be mainly directed towards supporting businesses most affected by the crisis. Under the new spending plan, the government wants to extend its support measure to 550 new businesses.

Of the budget, 40% or $1.3 billion, will go for development projects (more than half of which will be financed locally). $791.5 million will benefit health and education, $136.2 million will be used to implement social programs, while $16.8 million will be used to create at least 205,500 new jobs.

In total, 60.5% of the budget will come from local resources, and about 39.3% from external aid. For the next fiscal year, the government expects to collect $1.4 billion in tax revenues, $154.9 million less than in 2019/20.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou