Burundi government is set to reduce the number of communes and provinces in the country according to the country’s minister for internal affairs Gervais Ndirakobuca.
While addressing the local leaders and press, Mr. Ndirakobuca said that there is a plan to reduce the number of provinces for the better and constructive management of the local government.
“Because we want to know if really we need more than a hundred communes or more than 15 provinces…so that’s what we are looking at…sincerely if our country needs more than a hundred communes so as to foster development,” said the internal affairs minister.
Currently Burundi is comprised of eighteen provinces and more than a hundred communes with every commune needing an administrator while the provinces are governed by the governors.
“I don’t think that our development plan can be achieved while having more than a hundred communes and more than 10 provinces so we are looking at options because we need to see how to facilitate even in tax collection,” said Ndirakobuca.
During the presidential campaigns last year, one of the presidential candidates Francis Rohero had hinted on his agenda if elected as a president to cut down the number of provinces in the country, however he lost the elections as the incumbent president Evariste Ndayishimiye bagged 68 percent of the votes.