Defence’s N$8 billion budget: ‘Its like funding a kindergarten with no kids’

Analysts have criticised the N$8 billion budget allocated to the defence ministry by finance and public enterprises minister Iipumbu Shiimi on 28 February.

In a recent interview with Desert Radio, analyst Tjipura Tjipura said the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs’ budget is like funding a kindergarten with no children.

“I feel like it is like funding a kindergarten that does not have kids to attend the kindergarten, so you keep on investing money in something that does not create revenue at the end of the day. In terms of investment, the government should look at its policies on how they invest in certain parts of the government.”

He said investing in unemployment and the youth is more important than investing in the military, since the country is not at war.

“Military matters are not that important at the moment. Maybe it is because of the administration of the institution and maybe because of the operational cost, I believe maybe that is why they give such a budget, but it is really not necessary to spend as much as they do on defence instead of spending on important things [sic] like the youth,” he said.

“Investing in the military instead of investing in things like employment creation, as we are currently struggling with a particular problem called unemployment, and in order for you to create employment, you need to invest in the private sectors and most importantly, the informal sector, because it needs investment right now.

“If you look at what the informal sector brings to the table, it is a large amount, but in order for this informal sector to survive, the government needs to ensure that there are policies that protect the informal sector, most importantly to ensure that they are able to employ the youth that are not employed,” he said.

Analyst Angelique Bock said the defence budget cannot be taken away.

“The problem with the defence ministry, if you take away that budget allocation, then the defence ministry decides that we have to let go of certain people and then there will be unemployment as well.

“You cannot question if there is something fishy or not in their budget allocation,” she said.

Shiimi unveiled a N$100,1 billion national budget. The budget represents an increase of 12,4% from the revised estimates of the preceding financial year.

The budget’s provision is to safeguard livelihoods and guard against excess reversals on gains made in the social sectors.

Shiimi’s budget includes N$3,2 billion in development projects funded through external loans and grants, as well as N$12,8 billion in interest payments.

Revenue collection is estimated at N$90,4 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of 11,5% from the revised estimates of the previous year.

EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUTH

Defence and veteran affairs minister, Frans Kapofi says the ministry has created employment to the youth.

“It is their views and if people are saying we should create employment. We have done so, we recruited a high number of people and most of them were Namibian youth as well.

“The budget is not only used to fight the war but [as a] deterrent against potential war and other things. We have created a lot of employment for Namibians.

“Look at what we have done to the late president’s farewell, it was defence that did most of the things. Should there be a crisis, it is defence that will handle a crisis and they have done so before.”