National Treasury Cuts 2019/2020 Planned Spending By Ksh 46.2 Billion

Kenya’s finance ministry has cut the government’s planned spending for the 2019/20 (July-June) fiscal year by 2.1 percent, equivalent to 46.2 billion shillings ($445 million).

The former finance minister Henry Rotich was criticized for raising spending in June and imposing additional tax measures on already squeezed taxpayers.

The current minister, Ukur Yatani, who was appointed to the post in an acting capacity in July, promised strict spending cuts aimed mainly at non-essential items such as foreign travel by officials.

The cuts to the budget for this fiscal year were mainly caused by revenue collection shortfalls, the ministry said in its budget review.

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Why Ethiopia has rejected Egypt’s plan for operating the giant dam on the Nile

Ethiopia on Wednesday rejected a proposal by Egypt to operate a $4 billion hydropower dam the Horn of Africa country is constructing on the Nile, further deepening a dispute between the two nations over the project.

In a press conference in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, Sileshi Bekele, minister for water, irrigation, and energy described Egypt’s plan including the volume of water it wants the dam to release annually as “inappropriate.”

“The proposal from Egypt was unilaterally decided…(it) didn’t consider our previous agreements,” he said.

“We can’t agree with this…we will prepare our counter-proposal.”

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Ghana expected to produce 850,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2019/20 season, at the lower end of average levels

Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, is expected to produce 850,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2019/20 season, at the lower end of average levels on account of the swollen shoot disease outbreak, the country’s industry regulator said on Thursday.

Ghana’s annual cocoa production is usually between 850,000 and 900,000 tonnes, though the country had an official forecast of 900,000 tonnes for the current 2018/19 season, which ends this month.

“Swollen shoot is the main factor bringing down production,” Joseph Boahen Aidoo, chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), an industry regulator, told Reuters on the sidelines of the European Cocoa Forum in Lisbon.

Aidoo also said Ghana would announce the official farmgate price for the 2019/20 season on Oct. 1. The farmgate price is a fixed annual price set and paid by the government to farmers each season.

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