Tanzania has budgeted Sh. 13.13 trillion for debt repayment in the upcoming fiscal year of 2024/2025, an increase from Sh. 10.48 trillion that the government had planned to spend in the current fiscal year of 2023/2024.
This was revealed in parliament on June 04, 2024, by the Minister of Finance, Dr.Mwigulu Nchemba when he was tabling his 18.17 trillion budget for his ministry. In the current financial year, the government has settled maturity notices for government debt totaling Sh.8.48 trillion, equivalent to 81% achievement of the annual target.
The planned amount for servicing the debt represents approximately 27% of the entire government budget for 2024/25, which is expected to be read on June 13, 2024. The latest report from the Central Bank put the governmnet debt at Tshs. 91.4 trillion of which USD 23.7 Billion represents external debt and Tsh. 30.7 trillion represents domestic debt
Since 2019, Tanzania has increased its rate of acquiring non-concessional loans, the majority of which was spent on financing the SGR rail. This has been one of the sources of the increase in government debt, it’s expected the debt burden will continue to soar due to the ongoing depreciation of the shilling.
