{"id":104860,"date":"2025-07-06T16:08:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T16:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns"},"modified":"2025-07-06T16:44:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T16:44:28","slug":"kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns","title":{"rendered":"Kagame explains budget hike amid austerity concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>President Paul Kagame has explained why the national budget has increased, despite his earlier call for spending restraint.<\/p>\n<p>This was on July 4 as he spoke to senior editors and international correspondents during a media interaction marking the 31st anniversary of Rwanda\u2019s Liberation.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Kagame urged Rwandans to \u201ckufunga mkanda\u201d\u2014a Swahili phrase meaning to the tighten belt, or cut back on spending\u2014in response to potential funding cuts from some international partners over Rwanda\u2019s alleged support for the AFC\/M23 rebel group in DR Congo. Rwanda denies these allegations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKufunga mkanda means using limited resources wisely,\u201d Kagame said, pointing out that it\u2019s about cutting non-essential spending and reallocating funds to critical priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the earlier caution, the government plans to spend over Rwf7 trillion in the 2025\/26 fiscal year \u2013 an increase of Rwf1.2 trillion or 21 per cent from the Rwf5.8 trillion allocated in 2024\/25.<\/p>\n<p>Kagame said the increase reflects urgent national priorities and the ability to mobilise new funding sources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe budget rise doesn\u2019t contradict the principle of efficiency. It means we identified new needs and found ways to finance them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) explained that the larger budget aims to support recovery from recent crises\u2014including the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation, the 2023 floods, and the 2024 Marburg outbreak\u2014while funding major and strategic projects such as the new international airport in Bugesera and RwandAir\u2019s expansion.<\/p>\n<p>It also includes allocations for the implementation of pension reforms that took effect in January 2025, which doubled employee contributions from 6 per cent of basic salary to 12 per cent of gross salary. This means the government must increase its contributions for public servants accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>Kagame stated that while some donors suspended funding, Rwanda sought alternatives to close the gap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe explored areas where we weren\u2019t collecting revenue. We also couldn\u2019t abandon vital projects,\u201d he said, adding that some suspended funds from donors were later reinstated \u201cmaybe\u201d after knowing the truth about the DR Congo issue.<\/p>\n<p>Domestic and external financing<\/p>\n<p>According to the budget law, domestic revenues are projected to reach Rwf4.29 trillion\u2014about 61 per cent of Rwanda&#8217;s total budget for the current fiscal year\u2014marking a 16 per cent increase from the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>This includes Rwf3.6 trillion in tax revenue, up 23 per cent from 2024\/25, and Rwf477.2 billion from other revenue sources.<\/p>\n<p>Over Rwf2.7 trillion of the budget is expected to come from external sources\u2014Rwf585.2 billion in grants and more than Rwf2.1 trillion in loans. Compared to the 2024\/25 budget, external loans are projected to increase by Rwf648.4 billion, while grants are expected to drop by 5.7 per cent from Rwf621.2 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry of finance attributed the rise in domestic revenue to stronger economic performance, recent tax policy reforms, and ongoing efforts under the medium-term revenue strategy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. President Paul Kagame has explained why the national budget has increased, despite his earlier call for spending restraint. This was on July 4 as he spoke to senior editors and international correspondents during a media interaction marking the 31st anniversary of Rwanda\u2019s Liberation. In March, Kagame urged Rwandans to \u201ckufunga mkanda\u201d\u2014a Swahili [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":104859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[7549,758],"class_list":["post-104860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-kwibohora-31","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kagame explains budget hike amid austerity concerns - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Paul Kagame has explained why the national budget has increased, despite his earlier call for spending restrai ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kagame explains budget hike amid austerity concerns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Paul Kagame has explained why the national budget has increased, despite his earlier call for spending restrai ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-06T16:08:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-06T16:44:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/sm_1751807358.304374.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kagame explains budget hike amid austerity concerns\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-06T16:08:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-06T16:44:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns\"},\"wordCount\":483,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/sm_1751807358.304374.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Kwibohora 31\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/kagame-explains-budget-hike-amid-austerity-concerns\",\"name\":\"Kagame explains budget hike amid austerity concerns - 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