The new Senegalese President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, asked his Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, on Tuesday, April 9, to carry out a broad inventory of the country’s economic and financial situation and to develop an action plan, according to a press release .
Mr. Faye, invested in early April after his resounding victory in the presidential election built on the promise of a change of system, asked Mr. Sonko to “carry out a general review of programs and projects” and to draw up “the general situation of public finances”, international cooperation and public-private partnerships, reports a press release published after the first council of ministers of the new power.
The Head of State also asked the government to “finalize, before the end of April 2024, the government’s action plan, with a precise agenda for achieving the set objectives”, in accordance with the program which he defended during his campaign. He also gave instructions to “initiate, without delay, with the private sector (national in particular), the implementation of a bold policy to revive the national economy”.
In front of the ministers, Mr. Faye said he was elected with a view to a “profound rupture” and a “transformation of the system at all levels of economic and social life”. He said he observed a rise in “the impatience and demands of the populations” in the face of the country’s economic situation.
Senegal, a country of 18 million people vulnerable to external shocks due to structural weaknesses, has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and the fallout from the war in Ukraine, which have dampened previously strong but uneven growth. Mr. Faye takes the helm of a country where poverty affects at least one in three Senegalese, with unemployment officially around 20%, persistent inequalities, heavy debt and high inflation. Investment was slowed by three years of socio-political tensions.
