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Government has increased the allocation for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to K4.8 billion, to enhance service delivery of projects at community level.
This is an increase from the current budget allocation of K4.4 billion.
CDF is said to be appreciated because it was perceived as an appropriate tool for the effective delivery of projects, direct financing of community development, facilitation of the local population in development as well as responds directly to the concrete development demands of constituencies.
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Finance and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, said each constituency would now receive K30.6 million from the current K28.3 million.
“To ensure that more resources are directly provided to communities for local development, including basic services such as clean and safe water, maternity wings, and school desks, I propose to increase the allocation to CDF to K4.8 billion. With this increase, each constituency will receive K30.6 million from the current K28.3 million,” Musokotwane said.
On the education sector, he proposed to allocate K27.4 billion or 15.4 percent of the budget on education.
Of the allocated funds, about K1.9 billion would be for grants to schools in line with the free education policy.
Musokotwane further proposed to increase the allocation to the school feeding programme to K111.7 million from K39.4 million to increase coverage and improve the quality of meals.
“This provision is very important for next year, in particular, and is part of the response measure to the escalated food prices,” he said.
The minister also proposed to spend K356.1 million for the recruitment of 5,400 personnel to improve service d delivery in the education sector.
He stated that of this, 4,200 would be teachers while the balance of 1,200 would be non-teaching staff.
“The recruitment of teachers will not only reduce the backlog of unemployed teachers but also improve the teacher-pupil ratio,” Musokotwane said.
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