By Prossy Nandudu
Government through the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development is to release the third and fourth quarter funds, under the Parish Development Modal, before the first planting season of 2024.
The money will enable small scale farmers invest in agro inputs such as seed, fertilizer, agro chemicals and also land preparation in time for planting. Among the seven pillars of PDM, Agriculture activities are enshrined in Pillar 1 which is about Production, Storage, Processing and Marketing.
This was revealed by the Minister of State for Finance in charge of General Duties, Henry Musasizi while appearing before the Finance Committee of Parliament on Friday.
Musasizi and his technical team led by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Ramathan Goobi were in Parliament to discuss the budget framework paper.
They also told parliament that the ministry has so far disbursed a total of Sh1.0585 trillion (about 99%) of the total budget of sh1.059 trillion) to Savings and Credit Cooperatives under the Parish Development Modal.
Through the Ministry of Finance X formerly Twitter handle, Musasizi said that money was posted directly to bank accounts of SACCOS in all the 176 Local governments and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).
He also highlighted progress made so far, adding that the economy grew by 5.2% in FY 2022/23 up from 4.6% the previous fiscal year. Adding that there was a reduction in Debt to GDP ratio from 48.4% to 46.9%.
He added that headline inflation slowed from the peak of 10.7% in October 2022 to 4.9% in June 2023 & reducing further to 2.6% in December 2023. And that Domestic revenue to GDP ratio improved from 13.2% in FY 2021/22 to 13.9% in FY 2022/23, although still below the NDP III target of 16%.
