Counties to receive Sh391bn in new financial year

County governments are set to receive about Sh391.1 billion as part of the equitable share of revenue in the new financial year after MPs last week adopted the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) for the 2024/25 financial year.

The national government on the other hand, will be entitled to about Sh2.6 trillion as part of its budget in the new year.

The allocation follows the Thursday, March 7, 2024 adoption of the BPS tabled by the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriation Committee chaired by Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro.

The adoption followed debate on the report after Nyoro apprised the House on the various financial and policy resolutions reached by the Committee, targeting key economic sectors.

Equally, the report put the county’s additional allocations at Sh48.2 billion with the allocation to the Equalization Fund being Sh7.9 billion.

The Committee also put the arrears to the Equalization Fund at Sh3.5 billion.

The Committee also resolved that consistent with the approved borrowing strategy in the Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDMS), the projected fiscal deficit be set at Sh703.9 billion.

This is equivalent to 3.9% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); being the difference between total revenues and grants and total expenditure and net lending.

Nyoro told the House that the allocations had been informed by a broad economic policy to boost primary production as well as to reinvigorate secondary and tertiary production for better economic prospects.

The Kiharu MP also noted that the Committee’s Report had taken keen interest in creating incentives to boost food production as well as made provision of necessary incentives targeting cash crop farming.

“In this BPS we have allocated significant resources for the purchase of seed, inputs for both food and cash crops. Through this, we will be able to deal with food inflation as we seek to balance the demand and supply,” said Nyoro.

Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie who seconded the motion told the House that the elaborate process preceding the BPS Report had demonstrated the incorruptible stature of the National Assembly in the critical Budget making process.

“We are a country that is serious about living within its own means, by not over-projecting on the revenue. This House has finally found its footing on budget-making away from previous attempts by external players to hijack the process. We have truly taken our place in the budgeting process,” said Kiarie.

The BPS Report was preceded by in-depth deliberations within the Departmental Committees in regard to allocations to the respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under their oversight purview, with the Committee Chairs subsequently appearing before the Budget and Appropriations Committee to defend their MDA’s budgets.