The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Somaliland approved, Tuesday, a 2018 central government budget of 1,687,000,000,000 Somaliland Shillings ( One trillion, six hundred eighty-seven billion SlShs) at a meeting the president, H.E. Musa Bihi Abdi, chaired.
Local councils, parastatals, and foreign aid projects are not included.
The Ministry of Finance said the presented budget was 9% higher than that of 2017 and equivalent to a little over US$281 million.
Thirty-four and one half of the budget is earmarked for developmental projects.
This year’s budget, according to the presidency spokesperson, Mohamoud Warsame Jama, accomodates an increase in salaries for public schools teachers and security, military personnel.
For the first time in the history of Somaliland, too, the budget allocates funds contributing to youth entrepreneurial creativity and job skills development.
The budget, however, drew the attention and justified criticism of both political and economic analysts.
“The budget is, in fact, much lower than that of 2017,” analysts contend.
They point out that central government budget for 2017 was US$258,867,337 based on a Central Bank rate of US$6000 to the US Dollar. At the time, they say, the market rate was US$7000 to the US Dollar – not much of a variance between the two rates.
This time around, the prevailing market rate for the US Dollar is between 11 000 and 12 000 Somaliland Shillings to the US Dollar, which brings down the CG budget to US$ 153 million – 46% short of its predecessor in real-time, market value.
“If, for instance,” it is pointed out “the budget provides US100 more to a teacher. That will only be on paper. At the market, that hundred, in fact, will only have a purchasing value of US$54”.
The government which came to power on 14 December 2017 is presently beset by a host of daunting political, economic and military challenges that require immediate attention.
The Lower House of the Somaliland parliament, the House of Representatives, is expected to deliberate on the budget sometime next week. It remains to be seen whether the MPs will notice the anomaly or opt for another ‘full approval’ of the Bill – as usual.
