The Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) Council of Ministers met Thursday in Gaborone to discus among others the Report of the 54th SACU Commission Meeting including trade and finance issues.
Chairperson of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Namibian Finance Minister Celle Schlettwein said in an interview after the end of the meeting that they discussed what he called household matters, trade and finance issues.
“The meeting looked at the budget of the institution for the next year and second year., we have received we have noted management accounts and slight under spending so reversed some funds into the pool for further in the next budget,” he said.
Schlettwein said the ministers then decided to approve a slightly reduced budget. He said they also looked at the Review Programme that was agreed upon by the Heads of States.
“The Review Programme looked at number of issues; how we share revenue in the pool and how we consider rebates of the pool and how we enter into trade agreements with third parties,” said Schlettwein.
The Review Programme, he revealed, was a difficult topic “we had been tasked by our heads of states to concluded all the work but we could not because of elections in the region.”
The SACU Council of Ministers comprises of Ministers of Finance, Trade and Industry from the five (5) SACU Member States being Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and eSwatini.
KO/Dng/APA