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KAMPALA - Finance Minister Matia Kasaija is Thursday (September 14, 2023), expected to present to the country the Budget Strategy for the Financial Year 2024/2025 at Kampala Serena Hotel.

A statement from the finance ministry indicates that the meeting is expected to be attended by different stakeholders including development partners, civil society organisations, private sector groups, and local governments who are also expected to give their views about the strategy.

The 2024/25 budget is under the theme: Full monetisation of Uganda’s economy through commercial Agriculture, Industrialisation, expanding and broadening service, digital transformation, and marketing Access.

According to the ministry’s principal communications officer, Apollo Munghinda, the strategy will look at issues of how to accelerate economic growth and social economic transformation and shifting the growth path to a higher level; specifically identifying opportunities for new economic growth and innovation.

It will also look at how the country can achieve faster social economic growth through household incomes and set out the financing framework that will support the fiscal consolidation agenda.

Part of the Fiscal Consolidation Agenda includes ways to increase revenue, reduce government expenditure, and efficient utilisation of the resources.

“This process of preparing the budget for the next fiscal year is in line with Article 155 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda and Section 13( 1 & 2) of the Public Finance Management Act,2015 (as amended). The proposed annual budget must be prepared in consultation with the relevant stakeholders such as the Local Governments, Civil Society, development partners, and private sectors, among others,” Munghinda said.

At the conference, Munghinda said the stakeholders are expected to be given the opportunity to react to the strategy and their views will be used to form the budget priorities.

“After this national budget conference, we shall on September 18, 2023, begin the local government regional budget consultative workshops and the preparations are equally in high gear,” he said.