A rollercoaster ride

Mixed conclusions have been drawn from Calle Schlettwein’s N$62.5 billion budget, which was tabled in the National Assembly on Wednesday. The finance minister has been under pressure from the word go and in light of an extravagant public sector splurge over the years, there was a need to tame expenditure this time around, given the tough economic conditions. Government has resolved to spend billions in a number of priority areas including housing, social safety nets and poverty eradication, while education and health continue to receive huge chunks from the budget cake. An improvement in the SACU revenue pool is expected to be a huge boost in terms of revenue generation. Equally government must now collect taxes more efficiently than ever before to help improve state revenue. For the new financial year, revenue would be slightly less than N$53.43 billion, better than the estimated 3.5% estimated in last year’s budget review and an almost 10% year-on-year increase from an estimated N$51.51 billion in 2016/17. The situation was attributed to improved SACU receipts as well as improved domestic revenue streams. Economists appear to be upbeat by the minister’s budget statement, with some optimistic that the tide will turn for the better on the country’s current economic state. Also, the minister must be commended for speaking out on corruption, which has become so rampant and appears to be institutionalised. One can only hope that other cabinet ministers and senior government officials will heed this call and uphold good governance. On job creation, it however appears that the authorities are yet to hatch a proper plan to create decent employment for the many unemployed Namibians, particularly the youth. We are not investing enough in the youth and programmes associated with them such as sport. Government must seriously consider new interventions to amongst others, help fund young entrepreneurs who have the potential to create employment. We must also encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. Government has been investing heavily in poorly run parastatals and it is high time that results-based management systems are implemented to stop the rot at state-owned enterprises.