EAC budget up by 11 pc to 104m US dollars

The East African Community (EAC) has tabled its budget that has increased by 11 per cent before the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) for 2023/2024.

Presenting the speech before the Assembly, Chairperson of the Council of Ministers and Burundi’s Minister for EAC Affairs, Youth, Sports and Culture, Dr Ezéchiel Nibigira, said that the budgetary estimates for 2023/2024 are being presented at a time when the EAC economies are experiencing global shocks arising from the on-going Russia-Ukraine war.

“The budget estimates for 2023/2024 are being presented at a time when the EAC economies are experiencing global shocks arising from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, tight global financial conditions, lingering effects of Covid-19, and the impact of climate change,” said Dr Nibigira.

More than half of the budget is expected to be raised from seven regional member states and the remaining will come from the development partners. Member states’ contribution will cover the 104 million US dollars budget by 57 per cent equally while development partner states expected to raise the remaining 43 per cent.

The budget allocation will be EAC Secretariat gets 50.9 million US dollars, East African Court of Justice 4.45milllion US dollars, East African Legislative Assembly 17.68million US dollars, Lake Victoria Basin Commission 8.47milion US dollars.

Other organs the Inter-University Council for East Africa 12.39million US dollars, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation 2.8 million US dollars, East African Science and Technology Commission 2.01million US dollars, East African Kiswahili Commission 1.5 million US dollars, East African Health Research Commission 2.19million US dollars and East African Competition Authority (EACA) 1.39million US dollars.

The 2023/2024 budget is projected to push up political stability, peace, security, and good governance in the region, a conducive macro-economic and business environment in the region.