The Zambian Cabinet has approved the 2025 National Budget Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure aimed at aligning the budget with the medium-term strategic goals outlined in the 2025–2027 Medium Term Budget Plan.

Cornelius Mweetwa, the Chief Government spokesperson, in a statement on Thursday, said the budget estimates were developed in line with the Green Paper and took into consideration input from various societal stakeholders.

“The 2025 Budget includes crucial revenue and expenditure measures aimed at growing the economy, despite the fiscal challenges,” Mweetwa said in the statement

The government spokesman stated that the 2025 budget would address the economic challenges posed by drought and the resumption of external debt payments, with the overarching goal of stimulating economic growth.

He also announced that the Minister of Finance and National Planning would present the 2025 National Budget to the National Assembly on Friday, September 27, as required by Article 202 (1) of the Zambian Constitution.

“In addition to the budget, Cabinet also approved, in principle, the introduction of a Bill in Parliament to amend the Anti-Corruption Act No. 3 of 2012.

“This amendment seeks to align the Act with the National Policy on Anti-Corruption and the Constitution, strengthening the legal framework for combating corruption and enhancing corporate governance within the Anti-Corruption Commission,” Mweetwa explained.

“The current Anti-Corruption Act has several gaps in preventing, prosecuting and punishing corruption and that the proposed amendments would address these shortcomings by strengthening penalties and enforcement mechanisms.

“The amendments will also improve public finance management, contributing to the national economic transformation agenda by promoting transparency and accountability in both public and private sectors,” Mweetwa added.

Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is set to reshuffle his cabinet where he is expected to do away with some “dead-wood” ministers who have performed below expectation.

The Presidency, which confirmed this on Wednesday, said a cabinet reshuffle to be undertaken by President Tinubu was imminent and could happen before October 1, which is Nigeria’s independence day.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who broke the news while addressing a press conference at the State House in Abuja, explained that the cabinet reshuffling exercise would be evidence-based as President Tinubu would be aided in his decision by public opinions that had been empirically extracted.

“The President has expressed his desire to reshuffle his cabinet and he will do it. I don’t know whether he wants to do it before October 1 and he will surely do it. That is what I will say, but he has not given us any timeline,” Onanuga told journalists.

He added that some ministers are expected to be dropped while some may be moved to other ministries.

“The President has given an order to all his ministers at the last Federal Executive Council meeting to go out there and speak about the activities of his administration,” Onanuga continued.

“Some of them have been media shy, television shy, radio shy, and he wants them to overcome all that and go out there and speak about what they have been doing.

“Because the feeling out there is that the government is not doing enough and the government has been doing a lot.

“And it is up to them to go out there and blow their own trumpet. They should go out there and talk about what their ministries have been doing.”