Three  social sectors of agriculture, education and health have collectively been allocated and equivalent of 35 percent of the total 2023/24 National Budget Minister  of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe presented in Parliament yesterday.

Education has received the biggest share at K603.36 billion, representing four percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 15.6 percent of the total budget.

“Education and Skills Development is one of the key priority areas for the government in tandem with the enabler number 5 in the MIP-1 [Malawi 2063 First 10-year Implementation Plan], Human Capital Development,” said Gwengwe.

The resources will cater for wages and salaries, routine operations for primary and secondary schools, technical and community colleges and public universities as well as development projects in this sector.

The development projects to benefit include Inkosi ya Makhosi M’Mbelwa University in Mzimba allocated an initial K5 billion, among others.

The proposed entrance to Inkosi ya Makhosi M’Mbelwa University in Mzimba, formerly named Mombera

The agriculture sector has been allocated K455.10 billion, representing three percent of GDP and 11.8 percent of the total budget. In the budget ending on March 31, the sector was allocated K462.24 billion and this year’s allocation represents 15.6 percent of the total budget.

The money will, among other things, cater for wages and salaries, operations, including Affordable Inputs Programme whose budget has been increased from K109 billion to K117 billion, maintenance of grain silos and K4 billion for recapitalisation of Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc).

The health sector has been allocated K330.18 billion, up from K283.57 billionand calculations show that the allocation has gone down by about two percent in real terms.

In the current budget, the health sector allocation represents at least 10 percent of the total budget while the proposed budget shows that the new figure is just 8.6 percent of the total K3.87 trillion, and way too below the aspired 15 percent.

This has not gone down well with stakeholders in the sector, who argue that this is retrogressive, and non-responsive to the needs of the sector in terms of the fight against cholera, Covid-19, infrastructure development and may collapse the sector.

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