DAR ES SALAAM: LAST week but one, the Ministry of Finance tabled its Finance Bill totaling 62bn/- (24.3 billion US dollars), which is an expansion of 10 per cent compared to last year, signifying an increase in expenditure geared at boosting the economy on a larger scale.
By any means, this is good news to all Keynesians–economists who believe that government expenditure is a key driver of economic growth.
Other neighbouring countries, as is tradition in East African countries to table their bills on the same day, like Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, had their day in their parliaments.
Kenya tabled a finance bill valued at 37.2 billion US dollars and Uganda came up with 22.8 billion US dollars.
While those were national budgets, agriculture allocations carried more attention than other ministries, since it is the leading sector in employing more East Africans.
Tanzania allocated a total of 1.95tri/- (740 million US dollars), Kenya set aside 496 million US dollars, whereas Uganda allocated a total of 620 million US dollars—the biggest in the region and the highest ever allocated to the agricultural sector.
While Tanzania, to its credit, might have allocated a significant amount of money to the most important sector, its 1.3 per cent increase is the smallest compared to its peers in the region.
Uganda’s 2026/27 agriculture funding expanded by 21.6 per cent compared to last year’s allocation, whereas Kenya, the region’s economic hub, outclassed every member state by increasing its funding to the agriculture ministry by 34.5 per cent, which is quite significant.
Nonetheless, with all the colorful spending, none of East Africa’s spending managed to meet the Malabo Declaration’s 10 per cent target for agriculture spending– from the 2014 AU commitment under CAADP, aiming for at least 10 per cent of national budgets to agriculture for 6 per cent sectoral growth and food security goals.
Calculations show that Tanzania’s spending on agriculture versus the national budget is around 4 percent, Uganda stands at 3.0 per cent, and Kenya at 2.0 per cent, the lowest in the bloc.
Tanzania’s agricultural sector grew by 4.0 per cent in the year 2025, contributing 24.6 per cent to the country’s GDP; with only a 4.0 per cent budget share, it is highly unlikely that it will meet the 6 percent targeted growth.
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Generally speaking, the budget spells out that it seeks to move from a heavy emphasis on transport infrastructure to rural industrialization, value addition, and climate proofing.
It acknowledges that the war between Iran and the US and Israel has disrupted fertilizer prices, which I reported some weeks ago to have gone up by more than 50 per cent in some cases, and that subsidies can play a role in bringing relief to farmers and the economy as a whole.
Besides, it does not increase subsidies on fertilizers but only promises to pay previous arrears to distributors who have been owed by Tanzania.
Kenya seems to have grasped the significance of inputs and subsidy support better than its peers, as it allocated a total of 140 million US dollars for the fertilizer subsidy programme, 15 million US dollars for seed subsidies, and 7.8 million for the coffee seedling programme.
It appears they have learned from their own success after recording significant gains in reducing the price of unga (maize flour) from 2022 to date, after increasing maize production through massive distribution of inputs and subsidies, among other important factors.
On the northwestern side, Uganda’s allocation appears to seek a total transformation of the agricultural sector from primary production to the sale of processed agricultural products.
To achieve this, Uganda has allocated a substantial amount of money to agricultural research and development, including funding the commercial production of the indigenous anti-tick vaccine and foot-and-mouth disease containment.
If there is anywhere this budget will help transform the sector, it is through targeted initiatives to quintuple native seed production and scale up processing capacities for priority domestic food and cash crop markets (such as pulses, oilseeds, cereals, and cashews).
That is what we are waiting for, as the final budget will be passed by the lawmakers.