The 2027 national budget will now be presented to the National Assembly on Friday 6 November, a week later than the 30 October date the government itself set. Vice-President Mutale Nalumango, who announced the original date in a business statement on 24 October, told the House on 27 October that the presentation had moved because the government was "still working on it".
The shift followed a rapid reshuffle. Citizens First had publicly asked for a postponement until a full Cabinet was in place, arguing that ministers appointed on a Wednesday could not defend a budget on the Friday, and 24 Cabinet ministers were sworn in on 28 October. The week's delay also pushes back the ten working days of sector budget analysis that were to follow the presentation.
For the CDF, the speech is the moment the 2027 rate is set — the first budget of the 226-constituency era. At the Treasury's budget hearings earlier in October, Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa projected CDF rising by K2.8 billion to about K9.0 billion in 2027, the arithmetic of holding the K40 million rate across all 226 constituencies. That was a hearings projection, not a decision: the rate and the constituency basis are confirmed only when the budget is read on 6 November, and this tracker will record them from the budget documents, not from the speculation ahead of them.
Source: Lusaka Brief — A week's grace for the new ministers: the 2027 budget moves from Friday to 6 November