In a report issued by the Ministry of Finance Development titled Fiscal and Economic Implication of COVID-19, Somaliland government is predicting a 30% drop in revenue in 2nd quarter and has put the total resources required to deal with the cost of COVID-19 at a whopping $110,805,000.00.
According to the report, Somaliland’s economy will shrink by 5% due to COVID-19 pandemic impact instead of the previously expected 2% growth.
A break down of the 110 million in the report shows that a 15 million dollar amount in a plan previously issued response plan by the Ministry of Health Development for COVID-19 is included.
The report by the Ministry of Finance Development includes a COVID-19 budget deficit support of 36 million dollars. And although, itt does not show if the government has so far solicited funds from any donors, sources say there are early stage talks with a major donor to help Somaliland with COVID-19 budget deficit support.
Additionally, there is a 54 million dollars for Humanitarian assistance to families affected. According to the report, this amount is needed to help 60,000 families with basic necessities for the rest of the year.
It is not entirely clear who the audience of this report are but the conclusion seems to indicate that it may be intended for the donar community.
Somaliland government has taken a number of economic steps due to COVID-19 pandemic including tax reduction on basic food commodities, an austerity measure that froze much of the development related expenditure prior to issuing this dire report.
The existence of this report was first reported by Geeska. Read the full report here.