Economist, Mally Likukela, said he expects the government to continue the trend of allocating a large percentage of the national budget to education to promote social protection.
With the tabling of the national budget set to take place in Parliament on Wednesday, Likukela said in an interview with Nampa on Monday, that the expectation is that the government will continue to direct many of its resources towards education and prioritise social protection as a key instrument to fight poverty and inequality.
“Resources will continue to be directed towards those ministries that have social protection mandates, for example, Ministry of Gender, Education, Health and Veterans Affairs,” said Likukela.
In agreement with Likukela, economist Marius Kudumo said that he does expect a large percentage of the budget to be contributed towards education because of the fragile state the education is currently in.
“I do think a large percentage of the budget will go to education because of the crisis in the education system of inadequate infrastructure and poor learning outcomes,” said Kudomo.
Likukela added that he anticipates that the government will maintain its expansionary fiscal policy, directing resources to priority sectors that can both boost the economy and increase resilience.
He continued to say that these sectors cover the ministries of transportation and works as well as agriculture; mines and energy.
When asked about whether a percentage of the budget should be allocated to development projects to support small, and medium enterprises (SMEs), Likukela stood in agreement.
“This would be an ideal situation. Unfortunately, the government does not have sufficient ‘fiscal space’ to do it,” he said.
Also in agreement, Kudumo added that if a percentage of the budget goes to supporting SMEs, there could be an increase in job creation, leading to reduced unemployment in the country.
“Spending money on development projects, if properly managed, could contribute to employment creation, especially in rural and remote areas, and for workers without professional skills,” said Kudumo
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
