The East African Community has just tabled the regional budget for the fiscal year 2025/2026, amounting to USD109,338,151.
Presenting the budget before the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA)’ virtual parliamentary session, the Chairperson of the East African Community’s Council of Ministers, Beatrice Askul Moe appealed to all EAC member states to utilize available resources efficiently to realize the goals stipulated in the regional financial bill.
Beatrice Moe, who is also the Cabinet Secretary for East African Community Affairs for the Republic of Kenya, presented the EAC Budget Speech for the financial year 2025/2026 at a Virtual Plenary Sitting of the 3rd Session of the 5th Assembly.
This follows the EAC Budget Estimates earlier tabled amounting to USD 109.3 million for the Fiscal Year 2025/2026 which are currently under consideration before the general Purpose (GP) Committee of the Assembly.
At USD109,338,151, the 2025/2026 EAC budget falls short of the previous financial estimates for 2024/2025 bill which was pegged at USD 112,984,442.
While delivering the Budget Speech, the Chairperson of the Ministerial Council implored upon the House to debate and approve the proposed regional Budget.
The financial bill runs under the theme of “Inclusive Economic Transformation through Domestic Resource Mobilization and Resilient Strategic Investment for Job Creation and Improved Livelihoods”.
Beatrice Moe presented an overview of the region’s economic performance outlook; review of the EAC programme performance for the just ended fiscal year 2024/2025 and outlined priorities for the incoming financial year 2025/2026.
She also reviewed the Audit for the financial year 2023/2024.
The Chairperson observed that, despite ongoing global challenges which include but not limited to geopolitical tensions, climate change, and shifting international aid; EAC economies continued to demonstrate resilience achieving a growth rate of 5.5 percent in 20 outpacing both ‘the global average of 3.3 percent and the Sub-Saharan Africa growth rate of 4 percent.
She posited that “the outlook for 2025 is even brighter, with projected growth rate of 5.8 percent, mainly due to robust performance in sectors such agriculture, construction, and service sectors, supported by sound policies and macroeconomic stability.
The proposed budget by the Council for the Fiscal Year 2025/2026 will be financed through Partner States’ contributions of USD 67.76 million, which is 62 percent of the total estimates, while the development partners are expected to inject the remaining USD 41.58 million, or 38 percent.
The Minister outlined key priorities for the Financial Year 2025/2026 to mainly focus on strengthening and enhancing regional peace, security, and political stability and enhancing intra-trade and investment through enabling business environments.
Other priorities include the strengthening of Regional Commitments under the EAC common Market protocol; and establishment of requisite institutions and acceleration of harmonization of fiscal and monetary policies towards attaining prerequisites of the East African Monetary Union.
The budget also focused on the development of the multi-sectoral infrastructure to improve connectivity in transport and Information Communication Technology (ICT) for timely services; enhancement of the social and productive sectors to increase productivity and raise the standards of living for East Africans.
The Chairperson of the Council added that the EAC remains committed to positioning the region as a resilient, integrated, and prosperous economic bloc in Africa, harnessing regional opportunities to improve the livelihoods of all East Africans.
The Speaker of East African Legislative Assembly, Joseph Ntakirutimana, stated that the Assembly would prioritize all Council Business related to the processing of budget including the Supplementary Estimates for the Fiscal Year 2024/2025 during the ongoing plenary.