Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare has motivated the budget allocation for the Office of the Prime Minister, saying the vote is clustered around seven programmes to be carried out in the new financial year.
For the 2025/2026 financial year, the Office of the Prime Minister has been allocated N$635,966,000.
N$585,966,000 of the money is for operational expenditures, while N$50 million would be channelled towards development expenditure.
Prime Minister Ngurare said programmes such as the Coordination and Administration of Government Leadership programme to be undertaken are meant to make sure that every household in Namibia feels the positive impact of the services provided by the government.
"In supporting Her Excellency President Dr. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah's vision in full, the Prime Minister will be deliberate and relentless in providing leadership that is focused on making sure that bureaucratic excuses should never be a stumbling block in providing appropriate solutions or implementing government programs and projects, and more so, in dealing with existing backlogs, emerging challenges, and emergencies."
About N$220,888,411 is intended for the Coordination of Disaster Risk Management.
Dr. Ngurare outlined that the allocated budget will be used to fund key activities.
These include the implementation of the National Drought Relief Programme and conducting the annual vulnerability assessment and analysis, among others.
"The current Drought Relief Programme for the 2024/2025 financial year is ending on the 30th of June 2025. Encouragingly, most regions have received normal to above-normal rainfall. There is a positive prospect of good harvests in crop-growing regions with good rangelands. Therefore, the Office of the Prime Minister will shift its focus in 2025/26 to strengthening resilience-building programmes, enhancing disaster risk reduction advocacy efforts, and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) across all sectors for sustainable development."
The Premier is further promising robust public service innovation and reforms, and the implementation of various automated government systems in the budget under consideration.
"I submit, for the consideration and approval of this august House, the proposed budget of N$635,966,000, as set out in the schedule of the Appropriation Bill for 2025, Vote 02: Office of the Prime Minister."
The committee stage of the debates on the Appropriation Bill continues.