By Tabora Bojang
Finance Minister Seedy Keita yesterday informed the National Assembly that over D2.3 billion was spent on wages and salaries in the first quarter of the year 2025.
This sum, he said, is 7 percent more than government’s initial target of over D2.1 billion.
The minister who was in the Assembly to present an overview of the government’s financial operations and key aspects of the 2025 budget, further revealed that the increment of the emolument budget could be attributed to a higher than expected wage bills, for example; the increase on salaries of civil servants by an average of about 30 percent.
Consolidated expenditures
According to Minister Keita, government’s actual total expenditure for the first quarter of 2025 amounted to D8.130 billion, which represents a 25 percent budget execution rate. This he said is mainly because of an increase in expenditure on subsidies and transfers to sub-vented institutions. “Subsidies and transfers amounting to D2.042 billion are as a result of an increase in wage bills of subvented institutions and an input subsidy of D580.95 million,” he explained.
Current expenditure
The finance minister added that the actual current expenditure totals D6.982 billion which represents 25 percent of the approved annual budget for the year.
“This D808.353 million is above the previous year’s outlay and the increase is mainly driven by a 32 percent execution rate of subsidies and transfers and a 29 percent execution rate of domestic interest payments,” he said.
Capital expenditure
On capital expenditure, the minister disclosed that D1.148 billion has been spent representing 30 percent of its approved annual budget of D3.777 billion.
High domestic revenue collection
According to the finance minister, the first quarter of the 2025 budget implementation shows a high domestic revenue collection with an over-performance of 19 percent compared to the same period in 2024. He said the actual total revenue of D6.674 billion performed better than the quarter1 budget of D6.466 billion by 3 percent. “However, this revenue turnover also coincided with high spending pressures emanating from increase in personnel emoluments and; subsidies and transfer to public institutions,” Keita noted.
