A local economist, Salomo Hei, says despite education receiving the lion's share of the budget over the years, Namibia is unable to reap the dividends from this investment.

Hei was giving a presentation ahead of the national budget that will be tabled this week.

"From 1990 to date, for every one dollar that GRN has spent, 18 cents of that went to education. The point is that we are spending so much on education and sectors like health, but for one reason or another, the service delivery has not been desirable. It has not met the expectations, and that's quite worrying."

Hei predicts that education will once again receive the biggest chunk, but this time around, he advises that Namibia set targets.

"What we want to see is a direction with regards to education spending. We need to understand what it is that we need to see. There's no way we are spending this sort of appropriation on education, and at the same time, we're putting out around 30,000 young people on the streets. There needs to be some sort of accountability for this sort of spending."

The economist also mentioned that, despite Namibia being a developing country, not much is spent on its development budget, something that, he says, needs to change.

"We need to get a percentage of the budget that should be allocated to the development projects. Through that, we'll be able to unlock value and have a ripple effect on revenue, job creation, and making sure our economy becomes inclusive. We don't have a growth problem, but we don't have inclusive growth as a country, so the budget must be very prescriptive in terms of that allocation for a developing economy."