Mali's cabinet on Friday approved a draft decree opening CFA125 billion in extra spending credits "as an advance" in the revised 2026 state budget, to cover additional needs for hospital construction, other priority projects and new personnel-spending measures, according to the cabinet communiqué reproduced by the Malijet news site. The sum is about €190 million at the CFA franc's fixed euro rate, and about 3 per cent of the revised budget's CFA3,993 billion in spending, by our calculation.
The communiqué presents the move as an emergency budget tool. It quotes Article 22 of the 2025 organic law on public finances: in cases of urgency and imperative national interest, extra credits may be opened by an advance decree taken in cabinet; Parliament must be informed immediately and a ratification bill filed when its next session opens. That is the government's account of the law. The communiqué describes an adopted draft decree. It does not say any money has been paid, hospitals opened or staff hired.
The budget behind it
Three weeks earlier, on 22 October, Mali's appointed legislature, the National Transition Council, adopted the revised 2026 budget with 121 votes, Journal du Mali reported. Spending rose 11.6 per cent, from CFA3,578 billion to CFA3,993 billion, and the planned deficit by CFA100 billion, to CFA620 billion. The revision includes CFA200 billion more for security operations and counts on CFA100 billion in extra mining tax revenue tied to the gold price, according to the finance ministry's presentation note as quoted there.
It also funds a programme of 15 health facilities from the national budget: converting Bamako's reference health centres into district hospitals, building two new district hospitals and seven regional hospitals. The council was given no amount for each facility and no building timetable. Its finance committee asked the government to inform Parliament of any credits opened by advance decree.
The communiqué refers to "hospital construction works" in general; it does not tie the CFA125 billion to those 15 facilities, and it does not say whether the credits add to the revised spending ceiling or sit within it, how they will be financed, how they divide between hospitals, other projects and pay, or what they do to the deficit.