Budget doesn’t reflect Nandi-Ndaitwah’s job creation promise – Hei

The 2025/26 national budget does not adequately address President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s recent promises regarding job creation, economic analyst Salomo Hei has said.

Hei, who is the managing director of research firm High Economic Intelligence, said on Thursday after the tabling of the national budget that the budget statement lacked clear indicators of how spending would align with the president’s stated priorities.

“One would have wanted to see that the budget statement speaks to some of those issues the president promised in respect to giving the confidence of how the spending pattern will flow,” he said.

Hei also raised questions about the operational implications of newly merged ministries, such as the Ministry of Industrialisation, Mines and Energy.

“One would have also wanted to see what is going to happen with the Air Namibia issue because essentially, those are important areas from a policy perspective,” he stated.

Hei further said there was also no mention of a new state-owned entity that would manage government assets.

“We also still see the education sector and the youth sector getting different allocations. What does that mean in terms of operational functionalities?” he asked.

The functions of education, innovation, arts and culture received the highest allocation of N$24.8 billion, while the sport, youth and national service functions, which also fall under the education ministry, will receive N$1.3 billion.

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