Shiimi’s budget deceptive – Nahas

Former prime minister Nahas Angula says finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi’s mid-term budget, released this week, themed "Reimaging the Youth," was deceptive to the country’s young population.

"This is clearly deceptive. In that budget review, there is nothing positive for young people," said Angula, who also served as minister of the education and defence portfolios.

"He is talking about loans for youth to buy farms or buy stocks or start businesses with borrowed money. The Bank of Namibia just hiked the repo rates. Surely the youth can't afford loans."

Shiimi’s budget, tabled on Tuesday, promises bigger income and higher disability grants, as well as tax breaks and increased monthly state pensions – pushing total expenditure for 2022/23 up by nearly N$4 billion.

The total operational budget now stands at nearly N$60.1 billion, compared to the N$56.6 billion in the main budget. Of this, about N$1.25 billion is for the salary increases of civil servants as agreed to recently to avert a nationwide strike.

"This is clearly deceptive and unrealistic. Do your job and inform the public about this political mirage," Angula said.