Opportunities from the 2013-14 Budget
07 Mar 2013 - Story by Martin Mwinga
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NAMIBIA’s Minister of Finance Mrs Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila presented the national budget to the National Assembly on February 26 2013. The 2013-14 budget placed emphasis on easing poverty and the cost of living for many Namibian families, through an increase in the income tax threshold; reduction in both individual and company taxes; a modest increase in the old age pension, and increased spending on education, housing and health.

The aim of our article this week is to make information available to you so that you can take advantage of opportunities available in the national budget through participation in tenders or possible employment opportunities that may be created through these allocations.

Allocations for Housing and Road Constructions in Towns & Regions

Many Namibians in different regions and towns are hoping the recently announced budget will bring business and job opportunities to their towns. Currently there are few industries in Namibia’s 13 regions to create job opportunities and for that reason many Namibians look forward to budgetary allocations to their regions. The central government annually allocates millions of dollars to different regions to support infrastructure development, such as roads construction and land servicing for housing development. The table below shows that government allocation for support and provision of housing increased substantially from N$626 million in 2012 to N$1.1 billion in 2013 -14.

This allocation not only creates housing opportunities for many Namibians, but also creates business and job opportunities for people in different regions. Although the total transport infrastructure budget allocation almost doubled from N$989 million in 2012 to N$1.9 billion in 2013-14, most of this additional expenditure goes to Air Namibia receiving N$1.2 billion out of the allocation of N$1.9 billion. Unfortunately if you are an entrepreneur or businessman in the road construction sector, there is bad news for you as the allocation for construction of roads around the country declined from N$966 million in 2012 to N$833 million in 2013-14.

Despite the overall decline in allocations for road infrastructure, the increase in capital transfers to town councils and regional councils contains allocations for road construction and renovations, so there are still opportunities at the regional and local level. Allocations for railway infrastructure have increased significantly from N$285 million to N$455 million. In an attempt to accommodate Air Namibia’s financing requirements, the minister of finance had no choice but to sacrifice some sectors of our economy, and in this case road construction was one of the victims.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 3: 2013-14 Budget Allocations 

 

 

 

Construction & Renovation

 

Vehicles Purchases

 

Furniture & Office Equipment

 

 Equipment & Machinery

 

President

 

 N$35 million

 

                                           -  

 

 N$15.4 million

 

 N$12.9 million

 

Prime Minister

 

 N$54 million

 

                                           -  

 

 N$5.9 million

 

                                            -  

 

Auditor General

 

    N$16,9 million

 

 N$34.8 million

 

 N$2.5 million

 

                                            -  

 

Home Affairs & Immigration

 

 N$57 million

 

                                           -  

 

                                  -  

 

 N$8.2 million

 

Ministry of Safety & Security

 

 N$445 million

 

 N$47.4 million

 

 N$16.5 million

 

 N$43.8 million

 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

 

 N$5 million

 

 N$15.2 million

 

 N$9.9 million

 

                                            -  

 

Ministry of Defence

 

 N$202 million

 

 N$27.5 million

 

 N$33.5 million

 

 N$399.2 million

 

Ministry of Finance

 

 N$63 million

 

 N$8.1 million

 

 N$16.6 million

 

 N$3.5 million

 

Ministry of Education

 

 N$423 million

 

                                           -  

 

 N$5.3 million

 

                                            -  

 

Gender Equality & Child Welfare

 

 N$29 million

 

                                           -  

 

 N$3.9 million

 

                                            -  

 

Healthy & Social Services

 

 N$500 million

 

 N$60.7 million

 

 N$105 million

 

 N$127.5 million

 

Ministry of Labour & Social Welfare

 

 N$16 million

 

 N$5.9 million

 

 N$4.4 million

 

                                            -  

 

Ministry of Mines & Energy

 

 N$45 million

 

 N$1.6 million

 

 N$1.3 million

 

 N$30.6 million

 

Ministry of Justice

 

 N$40 million

 

                                           -  

 

 N$14.1 million

 

                                            -  

 

Ministry of Regional & Local Authority

 

                            -  

 

 N$4.2 million

 

 N$2.7 million

 

                                            -  

 

Ministry of Environment & Tourism

 

 N$115 million

 

 N$32.0 million

 

 N$2.4 million

 

                                            -  

 

Ministry of Trade & Industry

 

 N$34 million

 

 N$3.8 million

 

 N$2.7 million

 

 N$6.4 million

 

Ministry of Agriculture

 

 N$895 million

 

 N$44.7 million

 

 N$11 million

 

 N$19.7 million

 

Namibia Correctional Services

 

 N$108 million

 

 N$1.9 million

 

 N$1.1 million

 

 N$1.0 million

 

Ministry of Fisheries

 

 N$42 million

 

 N$5.2 million

 

 N$2.1 million

 

 N$3.4 million

 

Ministry of Works

 

 N$32 million

 

                                           -  

 

 N$1.6 million

 

 N$5.9 million

 

Transport

 

                            -  

 

 N$182.3 million

 

 N$2.1 million

 

 N$5.7 million

 

Ministry of Lands & Resettlement

 

 N$37 million

 

 N$2.4 million

 

                                  -  

 

                                            -  

 

National Planning Commission

 

                            -  

 

                                           -  

 

 N$1.0 million

 

                                            -  

 

Youth & National Services

 

 N$60 million

 

 N$3.1 million

 

 N$5.3 million

 

 N$26.7 million

 

Electoral Commission

 

                            -  

 

                                           -  

 

                                  -  

 

                                            -  

 

ICT Ministry

 

                            -  

 

 N$14.1 million

 

 N$8.0 million

 

                                            -  

 

Anti-Corruption Commission

 

 N$12 million

 

                                           -  

 

 N$1.9 million

 

                                            -  

 

Veterans Affairs

 

 N$10 million

 

 N$4.1 million

 

 N$6.0 million

 

                                            -  

 

 

Martin Mwinga works for First Capital Treasury Solutions and can be contacted at mwinga@firstcapitalnam.com