The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED) Ramathan Ggoobi has given Ugandans a ray of hope when he disclosed that finances for national development for the period running between January and March has been released, and added that collected revenue has risen.
Ggoobi who was releasing the final budgetary estimates for the 2024/25 financial year also disclosed that the electoral commission and ministries associated with security have been availed financial resources to facilitate preparations for the 2026 general elections, and to strengthen national security.
He thanked Ugandans for intensifying agricultural related activities, industrialisation and trade in all sectors, which he said have resulted in an upsurge of the national economy from 5.6% in the previous financial year to 6.7% in the current financial year.
He explained that by December 2024, the government was collecting sh15.33tn up from the projected sh326.83bn. In the final budget estimates the government spent sh15.65tn out of which sh2.044tn was for paying salaries, sh348.3bn for defense expenditure, sh83.38bn for police, while prisons got a sh4.11bn slice of this amount.
The Internal Security Organisation (ISO) and the External Security Organization (ESO) got sh28.08bn and sh18.71bn respectively. Local governments were allocated sh308.75bn of which sh112.28bn went to schools while sh36.6bn targeted improvement medical service delivery in regions.
Government’s Parish Development Model (PDM) and the Ministry of Gender each got sh529bn and sh45.77bn respectively while Mulago National Referral Hospital and Butabika Psychiatric hospital got sh35.9bn and the Uganda Cancer Institute and the Uganda Heart Institute got sh6.84bn and sh7.52bn respectively.
The Uganda Blood Transfusion Services was allocated sh5.78bn while the National Blood Bank was allocated sh110.65bn.
Among other notable allocations is sh124.45bn which went to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) to facilitate expansion of secondary schools and training inmates in displaced camps to get vocational training.