KIGALI (Reuters) – Rwanda plans to increase government spending by 15.5 percent in the 2018/19 fiscal year to 2.44 trillion Rwandan francs ($2.81 billion), its finance minister said on Monday.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Donors will fund 16 percent of the budget with the rest coming from revenue and debt, Uzziel Ndagijimana told Rwanda’s parliament while presenting the draft budget.
“For 2018/2019 fiscal year, we plan to use a 2,443.5 billion francs budget, reflecting an increase of 328.2 billion francs up from last year’s revised budget of 2,115.3 billion,” Ndagijimmana said.
Part of the budget will go to the expansion of the national carrier RwandAir, and the ongoing construction of Bugesera airport, a new international airport being built less than an hour’s drive from Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.
He did not give details of how much of the budget will be geared towards the two projects.
Minister Ndagijimana also said that the government will use part of the budget to create 200,000 jobs.
Rwanda’s economy is expected to grow by 7.2 percent in 2018 and 7.8 percent in 2019 helped by farming, mining and construction.
Rwanda, like other East African nations, will present its final budget in June.
($1 = 867.7628 Rwandan francs)
Reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana; Editing by Omar Mohammed and Alexander Smith