During the plenary session of the National Assembly this Friday examining the budget of the Ministry of Energy, Petroleum, and Mines, the Minister of Finance and Budget, Cheikh Diba, sought to reassure members of parliament regarding the equalization funds allocated to local authorities. Parliamentarians had questioned him on this issue, expressing their indignation at the delays.

Regarding equalization funds more specifically, Cheikh Djiba acknowledged "the existence of delays and assured that the ministry has made arrangements to ensure that payments can be made quickly." He added, "Here is the decree allocating the support grant from the Local Government Support and Relief Fund, drawn from the annual resources of mining operations for the year 2023. The schedule for each local authority has been established, and the Treasury will take the necessary steps to ensure that the payments are made in the coming weeks."

The minister reiterated that all observations and remarks from members of parliament are taken into account to improve resource management and effectively meet the expectations of local authorities.

Furthermore, speaking of the budget of said ministry, he will say that "for this year [it] amounts to 130,090,966,646 FCFA, a slight decrease compared to last year when it was 143 billion FCFA.

However, by adding specific operations such as the electrification project for 2,000 villages for 7.090 billion FCFA and subsidies to the energy sector housed in the energy sector support fund for an amount of 250 billion FCFA, the consolidated budget reaches 387,196,653,710 FCFA.

Sheikh Diba stressed that this budget takes into account the various concerns raised by the deputies, particularly through rural electrification programs, solar energy and the promotion of efficient lighting lamps within the framework of the national transformation agenda.