By Okot Emmanuel

South Sudan’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has proposed a budget worth 287 billion South Sudanese Pounds for the Fiscal Year 2021/22.

The Finance Minister, Agak Achuil Lual says the government proposes to spend a total of SSP 287.0 billion which represents 12.8% of the country’s GDP estimated at SSP 2.241.0 trillion.

The 2021/2022 budget proposes increased allocation to the social sector (education, health, social and humanitarian affairs). Allocation to the social sector increased to SSP 80.2 billion from SSP 312.2 billion in FY 2020/2021.

Allocation to the education sector is SSP 49.2 billion which indicates an increase of SSP 24.7 billion which represents 100.8 per cent compared to the FY 2020/2021 allocation of SSP 24.5 billion.  

Similarly allocation to the health sector of SSP 27.7 billion (of which SSP 9.0 billion is earmarked to combat COVID19 pandemic) the provision of SSP 27.7 billion to the health sector interprets to an increase of 575.6 per cent compared to the SSP 4.1 billion allocations in FY 2020/2021 budget. 

The budget allocation to the social and Humanitarian Affairs sector of SSP 3.3 billion has increased by 26.9 per cent compared to the FY 2020/2021 allocation of SSP 2.6 billion.

Of this amount, as stated by Acuil, SSP 169.3 billion or 7.6% will be financed by domestic revenues while SSP 77.4 billion which represent 3.5% will be through credit (i.e. concessional loans) from cooperating partners.

The balance of SSP 40.3 billion, which represents 1.8% will be financed through commercial borrowing.

Revenue Sources for Financing the FY 2021/22 Budget
Source	Amount in SSP	Percentage (out of GDP)
Domestic Revenues	169.3 billion	7.6 %
Credit from cooperating partners (Concessional Loans)	77.4 billion	3.5%
Commercial borrowing	40.3 billion	1.8 %

The budget aims at stimulating economic recovery and reducing inflation from 22.8 in the fiscal year 2020/2021 to 16.3 per cent.

The Finance Ministry further said the FY 2021/2022 Budget is to consolidate peace, combat the COVID-19 pandemic and increase investment in physical infrastructure.  

About the Authors:

Okot Emmanuel, a Data Speaks Fellow at #defyhatenow South Sudan, wrote this data story, which was edited by 211 Check Editor Emmanuel Bida Thomas and approved for publication by Steve Topua, Data Analyst and Trainer. It’s part of the ongoing #defyhatenow South Sudan Data Speaks Fellowship program with funding from the European Union Delegation to South Sudan.

About South Sudan Data Speaks Fellowship: 

This is a three months data journalism fellowship for South Sudanese content creators with an aim of educating participants on the fundamentals of data journalism through in-depth training facilitated by experienced data analysts.

The fellows have been selected from across South Sudan and they are trained in data sourcing/mining, data analysis, and data visualisation for three months (October to December) 

Each fellow will produce a minimum of three (03) data stories during the fellowship. The focus will be on increasing access to information