Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s election pledge to provide sanitary pads for school girls may not be fulfilled in this year’s budget after Finance Minister Matia Kasaija said it would be weighed against other competing resource needs.

In reactions to Kenya’s budget, which was read on March 30 by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and allocated $5 million for sanitary towels, Mr Kasaija said priorities varied from one country to another.

“While sanitary pads for our girls are important, I have to decide whether to invest in these or provide for money to buy food for those who are starving due to the drought,” Mr Kasaija said.

He added that Uganda had already completed the budget allocation, and last week presented budget and ministerial statements for parliament to pass.

He declined to comment on Kenya’s budget saying he did not have enough information on the subject.

Kenneth Mugambe, the director of budget in Uganda said he was not even aware that Kenya had read its budget.

Stephen Ruzibiza from the Rwanda Private Sector Federation said Kenya’s budget supported the region’s industrialisation strategy by promoting value addition in agriculture.

Incentive
“The diverse impact with an incentive is that instead of producing for the mouth, farmers will be producing for the commercial market. Mr Ruzibiza said incentives for the agriculture sector would gradually reduce the cost of production and attract attract huge investments.

“If they are removing a tax, they should be having strategies to recapture the lost budget revenue. One way of doing this is by employing intensive agriculture processes, creating jobs and eradicating poverty,” Mr Ruzibiza said.

Rwanda’s Finance Minister Claver Gatete said the government did not comment on other country’s budgets in principle.

Mr Gatete said Rwanda was in the process of formulating the budget before coming up with a budget framework paper.

“The law stipulates that the Budget Framework Paper should come out before the end of April, and the budget has to be passed in the first two weeks of June,” said Mr Gatete.

Rwanda’s budget will be hinged on financing its Economic Development Strategy, a blue print meant to attain middle income status by 2020. Analysts expect the budget to address the negative trade balance.