Land reform budget doubles

THE Ministry of Land Reform’s budget for the purchasing of commercial farmland is set to be doubled during the 2015/16 financial year in an effort to accelerate the pace of Namibia’s land redistribution programme.

The ministry is set to receive N$807 million from the national budget for the year to the end of March 2016 for the purchase of commercial agricultural land – more than double the amount it was allocated for the same purpose during the previous financial year.

With the increase of the budget to buy farmland for government’s land reform and resettlement programme, the amount of money that the government is spending annually to purchase commercial agricultural land will have increased 16-fold in the span of five years.

In Namibia’s latest three-year medium term expenditure framework, which finance minister Calle Schlettwein tabled in the National Assembly last week, it is stated that 416 000 hectares are to be bought with the budget allocation of N$854,8 million earmarked for the ministry’s land reform programme during the 2015/16 financial year.

If as much farmland is bought as planned, it would represent a substantial acceleration of government’s land reform programme and would underscore the increasing importance that government has been according land reform as a budget priority over the past decade.

Out of the N$854 million allocated to the land reform programme, which encompasses the purchase, valuation, allocation and administration of land, N$807 million is meant to buy land for resettlement purposes, it is indicated in government’s main budget for 2015/16 and the latest development budget prepared by the National Planning Commission.

The current projection is that N$462 million is to be allocated for the purchase of commercial farmland for resettlement during the next financial year, while N$379 million is to be spent for the same purpose during the 2017/18 financial year.

Government’s budget for the purchase of land has shown a sharp increase over the past four years.

From 2003 to 2012, government allocated N$50 million in the country’s national budget for the purchase of land for the land reform and resettlement programme each year. That was an increase of 150% on the annual land purchase budget of N$20 million that had been part of government’s spending plans from 1996 to 2002.

The land purchase budget was increased to N$91 million in the 2012/13 financial year, N$101,7 million in 2013/14, and N$370 million in 2014/15.

The Ministry of Land Reform’s total budget of N$1,07 billion during 2015/16 will be 82% higher than its budget of N$590 million in the 2014/15 financial year – which was already 95% higher than its budget allocation of N$302 million in 2013/14.

According to a strategic plan of the ministry that was announced two years ago, government planned to buy 77 000 hectares of land (roughly 15 farms of about 5 000 hectares in size each) during the 2013/14 financial year, 64 000 hectares during the following financial year, and 50 000 hectares during the 2015/2016 fiscal year.

The ministry also indicated at the time that it had a target of acquiring 2,5 million hectares of land for the land reform and resettlement programme.

With its increased allocation in the national budget for 2015/16, expenditure by the Ministry of Land Reform will account for about 1,6% of total projected government spending of N$67,08 billion during this financial year. Last year, the ministry’s budget accounted for 0,98% of total estimated government spending of N$60,18 billion.

Ten years ago, Namibia’s national budget envisaged total government spending of N$12,8 billion during the 2005/06 fiscal year. The then Ministry of Lands and Resettlement was allocated N$48,8 million in that year’s budget – which represented about 0,38% of total government expenditure during 2005/06.

With its increased share of the national budget, the Ministry of Land Reform has now overtaken several other budget votes that have previously been receiving a bigger slice from the national budget than the ministry did.

These include the Office of the President, with projected expenditure of N$715 million during 2015/16/ the Office of the Prime Minister, with projected spending of N$616,6 million this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, which is allocated N$518,8 million in the 2015/16 budget, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with a budget allocation of N$642,5 million, and the Department of Works, which is due to receive N$726,6 million from the 2015/16 budget.