NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan farmers have a reason to smile after agriculture was among the sectors that reaped big in the 2024/2025 national budget.
Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury and Economic Planning Njuguna Ndung’u said that the ruling Kenya Kwanza administration will continue to focus on agricultural transformation and inclusive growth through the value chains approach.
CS Ndung’u spoke on Thursday, June 13, while tabling the Sh4 trillion budget before the floor of the House.
“This aims to provide adequate and affordable working capital to all farmers through cooperative societies and deploy modern agricultural risk management instruments that ensure farming is profitable and income is predictable,” said the CS.
How much did the agriculture sector receive
Agriculture received a Sh48.23 billion allocation that will be distributed as follows:
Cherry Coffee Revolving Fund (Sh2 billion), Fertilizer Subsidy Sh10 billion), Sugar reforms (Sh1.7 billion) and New KCC (Sh2.25 billion).
“The domestic growth in 2023 was mainly supported by a rebound in agricultural activities given the improved weather conditions and subsidised inputs for farmers. The services sector’s resilience remained strong that same year,” Ndung’u said.
Ndung’u further said that the government had continued to invest heavily in education to facilitate the development of the necessary skills and competencies in learners from the pre-primary to the tertiary level.
“This will enable learners to effectively play their part by contributing to the nation-building effort and partake of the dividends of shared prosperity.
Why the education sector also reaped big
In the budget, the education sector received Sh656.6 billion, which has been allocated to Free primary and Day Secondary Education (Sh 71.0 billion), Junior Secondary School Capitation (Sh30.7 billion), School Feeding Programme (Sh3.0 billion), Examinations Fee Waiver (Sh5.0 billion) and Teachers Service Commission (Sh358.2 billion) among other allocations.
To empower the youth and support businesses owned by youth and women, the sector has been allocated Sh89.5 billion to support initiatives such as Kenya Youth Empowerment Program (Sh 1.1 billion), National Youth Service (Sh10.4 billion), and National Youth Opportunity Towards Achievement (NYOTA) (KSh 2.7 billion) among others. CS Ndung’u further said that the government is determined to realise the constitutional right to health by promoting access to quality and affordable healthcare through a universal healthcare coverage programme.
“Towards this end, I propose an allocation of KSh 127 billion to the health sector to support various activities and programmes,” he explained.
How the gov’t seeks to tackle housing challenges
According to Ndung’u, the government’s commitment to turning the housing challenge into an economic opportunity to create quality jobs for the youth directly in the construction sector and indirectly through the production of building products will be achieved, among other measures, through facilitating and delivering 200,000 housing units per annum and enabling low-cost housing mortgages.
“To continue supporting this, I propose an allocation of KSh 92.1 billion for the housing urban development and public works,” he added.
CS Ndung’u has addressed the government’s pressing financial challenges by highlighting the increased demands for expenditures and the limited options for financing.
He described the situation as having three phases: the increased demand for government expenditure, which requires financing through taxes or deb.
The second is the limitations and constraints on the accumulation of public debt and the economy’s ability to carry debt.
The third is the challenge of raising more tax revenues, which is essential for meeting the government’s financial needs.
