The East African Community raised its budget by 11 percent last year for the financial year 2023/24. The budget now stands at Ksh14.5 billion up from Ksh12.79 billion.
According to the head of the EAC Council of Ministers who is also the minister of Burundi Ezechiel Nibigira, the regional group’s objective is to collect approximately half of the funds from contributions of the seven member countries. The remaining amount will be expected from development partners as per the budget presented on Tuesday.
“Out of this amount, Ksh8.24 billion will be contributed equally by partner states or raised as other internal revenues while Ksh6.25 billion will be sourced from development partners.”
said Ezechiel Nibigira while speaking to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in Arusha.
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He further said that the budget estimates were presented amid different global shocks including the impacts of COVID 19, the effects of climate change, the different global economic conditions and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine which still affects the EAC economics.
“ Despite these challenges, economic growth in the region improved to 4.8 percent in 2022 from 3.5 percent in 2021. The strong growth in the region was supported by the good performance of the industry, services, construction, mining and manufacturing sectors,.”
Nibigira said.
He further went on to say that he believes the EAC economies have a promising future due to the outstanding growth in the services sector and increased public and private investments.
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“However, downside risks remain attributed to weaker global growth, tight financial conditions and climate change risks.“
he said.
Of the total amount, 12 percent will go to The Inter-University Council for East Africa, 49 percent to the EAC Secretariat and the remaining 17 percent will go to EALA.
The East African Court of Justice will receive four percent, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization will receive three percent and eight percent will be directed to Lake Victoria Basin Commission.
