Gov’t budget sinks D195M in deficit in first quarter of the year

The Minister of Finance Seedy Keita yesterday briefed lawmakers on how the 2026 budget was raised, managed and executed in the first quarter of 2026.

He began by revealing that though no grant support was received from partners, total domestic revenue for the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year stood at D7.68 billion representing 21 percent of the 2026 budget target of D35.87 billion.

However before NAMs would clap for him for that achievement, the minister changed their mood by stating  government expenditure and net lending for the period amounted to D7.87 billion, leaving  a gross deficit of D195.84 million.

According to the minister, the main drivers for this expenditure are personnel emoluments which amounted to D2.45 billion: subsidies and transfers -D2.14 billion, while debt interest payments amounted to D1.36 billion.

He added that the expenditure on personnel emoluments increased due to a 5 percent year-on-year increase in pay rise while the spending on subsidies include a D500 million input subsidy as well as transfers to subvented agencies which he said include the salaries of education and health sectors.

Capital expenditure
Minister Keita further informed lawmakers that the government’s capital expenditure for the first quarter of the 2026 financial year has decreased by D409.18 million. 

He explained: “Capital Expenditure amounted to D738.74 million, representing 21 percent of its approved annual budget of D3.54 billion, which  compared to the corresponding period a year ago, decreased by D409.18 million”.

He attributed the decrease primarily to resource constraints.

“If resources were available, we would have allocated more funds to capital expenditure to roll out the ongoing implementation but you can only spend what you have,” Minister Keita said in response to a question by Foni Kansala lawmaker .

Member for Kiang West Lamin Ceesay put it to the minister that the decrease in the capital expenditure due to lack of funds exposes government’s ambition to embark on infrastructure while lacking capacity to fully mobilise the needed funds.

But Minister Keita dismissed this assertion as “incorrect” saying government has other means to generate funds such as road levy and partner-support.

He informed members that despite this decrease in capital funding, the Ministry of Works executed its budget by 24.55 percent driven by infrastructure contractor payments exceeding D652 million principally for ongoing road projects and construction works.

Sectors expenditure
According to Minister Keita, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education was the single largest spender in the quarter and its expenses are primarily driven by personnel emoluments, salary payments for subvented schools, the School Feeding and School Improvement Grant programmes. He said the Ministry of Agriculture achieved the highest execution rate underpinned by groundnut and agricultural input subsidies amounting to D450 million and D177.4 million as well as the procurement of 90 tractors for D35 million.

“The Ministry of Health’s expenditure is also largely driven by health worker salary payments and recurrent allocations totaling D446.1 million in support of subvented hospitals,” he told NAMs.

According to him, these allocations covered issues such as salaries, medicines, utilities, and operational costs and provisions for medical treatment.

On the Ministry of Interior, the minister reported it spent 23.31 percent of its approved budget D553,634.29 million predominantly on salaries for security personnel and operations.

He gave the expenditures for other sectors as follows: Office of the President-D266,499.87 million, National Assembly-D155,669.05 million, Judiciary-D51,651.66 million, IEC-D115,302.92 million, Public Service Commission-D3,474.98 million, Ministry of Defence-D306,871.09 million and Ministry of Foreign Affairs-D313,494.20 million.