By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
NATIONAL
Government has been asked to address challenges in the agriculture, health and education sectors if it is to achieve targets outlined in the 2024/25 national budget.
According to Ismail Kiirya, the acting spokesperson for Democratic Party (DP), the government is committing a lot of resources some which is borrowed to sectors which do not directly benefit all Ugandans.
“But as Democratic party we expect a budget which includes all Ugandans by touching those sectors which directly benefit all Ugandans,” Kiirya said.
The call comes at a time when the minister of finance planning and economic development, Hon. Matia Kasaija is expected to read to the approved Shs72.136 trillion nation the national budget for the Financial Year 2024/2025, on Thursday June 14.
But DP says the big question is on how this budget will benefit ordinary citizens. They accuse the government of failing to prioritize sectors that benefit the larger population such as agriculture, health and education by continuing to reduce funds allocated to these sectors in every budget reading.
“This year’s budget should put Agriculture as the first priority of Uganda. Agriculture is the back born of Uganda,” he said.
The agricultural sector resources were reduced to about Shs170 billion, Shs1. 605 trillion in FY 2024/25 from Shs1. 813 trillion in FY 2023/24. Kiirya says this reduction disables government’s commitments to invest in agricultural transformation.
“Every year government is losing the interest to invest in Agriculture which is very dangerous to this nation. We want government also to prioritize the health sector, but as we go on, the sector is also losing in ever financial budget. In the national Budget of 2022/2023 the sector lost 12% on the national Budget,” he explained.
The UYD president further commended government for increasing funds allocated to the education sector in the coming financial year. In the national budget for the financial year 2024/25, parliament has allocated Shs4.542b to the education sector as compared to Shs4.246b in the last financial year indicating an increment of 7 percent.
However, Kiirya emphasized the need to continue prioritizing the highlighted sectors to improve the social security of this country.
