Boko`s quest to end blanket subsidies :: Mmegi Online

After years of a ballooning social welfare spending and a citizenry increasingly reliant on state support, government now plans to rein in its generous hand, restricting subsidies to only those in critical need. Yet, in an economy marked by high unemployment and deepening poverty, the path to reform may prove politically and socially fraught, writes TIMOTHY LEWANIKA

Delivering his State of the Nation Address (SONA) this week, President Duma Boko stood on a different ground from his predecessors. Those who occupied the first office before him stood on the confidence of booming government accounts, a surging diamond industry that allowed them to dream, implement, and dream again.

With national accounts at record lows, unemployment at record highs, the President had to make an admission that his predecessors afforded to brushed off. The government cannot keep up with its high subsidy financial costs.

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