Funds disbursement delay to regional govts hampers service delivery in Africa

 

The panel of Mayors from various cities in Africa, Ministers of Local Authorities and development partners during the Tripartite Dialogue roundtable between Ministers, Mayors and Development Partners-Story and Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

May 21, 2022

Funds disbursement delay to regional govts hampers service delivery in Africa

THE delay in disbursing funds promptly to regional governments hampers delivering services at the grass root level in various parts of Africa.

This has emerged on the final day of the Ninth Edition of the Africities Summit 2022 being held in Kisumu Kenya during the Tripartite Dialogue Roundtable between Ministers of Local Authorities/Devolution, Mayors of Cities in Africa and the Development partners.

The Mayors and the Ministers for Local Authorities/Devolution across Africa have suggested that there should be a timely disbursement of the funds to the regional Government.

They say the National Treasury from various National Governments in Africa should release the funding during the first week of the first quarter of a given Financial Year.

The issue of Mistrust between the two levels of the Governments namely the national and the regional governments seems to be one of the issues that causes the delay in disbursing the funding to the regional governments.

The Mayors of the various cities have put to task the Ministers of the local Authorities to explain why they must always be delays in the disbursement of funds.

 The issue of duplication of roles between the two levels of Governments in African continent has also emerged strongly, the delegates in attendance suggested that there should be clear and distinctive roles by the two level governments where none duplicate the role of the other while implementing the projects.

Municipalities within rural areas have been advised not to always look upon the National Governments to give them funding but should have an alternative way of sourcing for their funding.

The issue of Laws like that of Urban and Cities Act in some countries in Africa has also been an impediment for the development partners to reach out directly to Municipalities to give direct funding to such.

In Niger, it has emerged that the system of devolution is irreversible since the public fully advocated for it and the National Government fully decentralized the functions meant for the devolved units in the country.

 The Development partners have suggested that there is need to give rural municipalities a chance of developing  just like the municipalities in town and cities across Africa.