§ The scheme is in its infancy and will obviously take some time to develop fully. It is too early to forecast what scale of operations may later prove necessary and practicable. The provision of £20,000 which the House will be asked to approve is for expenditure on United Kingdom technical assistance to non-Commonwealth countries in Africa south of the Sahara in the next financial year. It is doubtful whether in the initial stages a greater rate of actual expenditure could usefully be achieved; but during the first year we would expect to be considering requests for technical assistance projects on which the actual expenditure would start in later years. The figure of £20,000 represents new expenditure and does not, of course, include United Kingdom technical assistance to the British dependent territories in Africa or to Ghana under the United Kingdom/Ghana Mutual Technical Assistance Scheme which will continue to be dealt with under the existing arrangements.