The visit of the American Secretary of the Treasury was an opportunity for Senegal to put the Dakar-Bamako railway rehabilitation project back on track. The Americans have shown keen interest in the project which Dakar believes could be part of the soon-to-be launched Regional Compact. The Minister of Finance and Budget, Moustapha Ba, indicated that the interest of the Americans has increased because of the transparency noted amongst their Senegalese partners.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Mamadou Moustapha Ba, having just met the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, announced to the press that the Senegalese side has submitted to its American partners a request for the financing of the Dakar-Bamako railway. The Minister of Finance and Budget declared in particular: « An important request that caught their attention (from the Secretary of the Treasury and her delegation: Editor’s note), in order to be able to be financed within the framework of the Regional Compact, is the railway line of the Dakar-Bamako-Niamey corridor, and especially the Dakar-Tambacounda section, which is about 500 km long. The railway is one of the priorities that have been addressed in the context of our relations with the United States in terms of financing.”
Mamadou Moustapha Ba is optimistic because Americans have been enthusiastic about Senegal’s achievements in this area. He explained that “the Americans have praised the efforts that have been made by Senegal in the development of the corridors, especially when they observe them within the framework of regional integration. And in the development of the corridors, the Americans have seen that the Rosso bridge is at a very satisfactory level of execution, with funding of around 96 million dollars. They also saw that the Mbour–Fatick-Kaolack highway is in progress. It is very important« .Because all this demonstrates the will of the Senegalese head of state to open up the national territory, and above all to facilitate international trade between the countries of the sub-region, which is very encouraging.
3 Billion Euros to Rehabilitate the Dakar-Tamba Railroad
Support from such economically powerful partners is not negligible. Recent studies, made within the framework of the rehabilitation of this railway, indicated that it would take today about 2 billion euros to rehabilitate a track to a metric line between Dakar and Tambacounda. A track with two metric lines would require, according to the same studies carried out with the collaboration of Dakar-Bamako Ferroviaire, at least 3 billion euros. It is obvious that Senegal is not yet financially capable of devoting so many own resources to a single infrastructure, however vital it may be. Hence the idea of integrating it into international funds which would include the opening up of countries in the sub-regional hinterland, such as Mali and Niger, via Burkina no doubt. However, if this question were important, it was not the only one that was raised by the various parties in terms of funding.
The State Treasurer indicated that Senegal has presented to Janet Yellenand her delegation, the other economic priorities of Senegal. Thus, he says, the American guests, « were able to see all the same as in terms of investment priorities in Senegal, the first priority item was transport infrastructure and services, the second priority item, these are energy infrastructure and services, and the third priority item is agriculture. These are the areas on which the Secretary of the Treasury has insisted.
Debt Management
All this could be facilitated by the quality of Senegal’s signing, and the good performance of its finances. Moustapha Ba declared in particular that the management of Senegal’s debt was an important point of the discussions. « The Treasury Secretary was pleased with the fact that Senegal was the only country in the sub-region to comprehensively account for its debt and that this debt included both the central government and the para-public sector debt. Which other countries have not done. The Americans also saw that Senegal always published its debt audit reports. The first audit report was made by an international firm which was chosen in relation to commitments that Senegal had made as part of its economic and financial program in 2021 and which effectively concluded that Senegal’s debt was exhaustive. And that the accounting system was efficient. The other audit that was done was with the World Bank. This is the debt management framework.We have a Debt Department which is attached to the Treasury and which manages this debt. And now, there is also the Court of Auditors which carries out, each year within the framework of the laws and regulations, the audit of the debt of Senegal. So, both from a debt management perspective and from a debt ratio perspective, they were reassured by Senegal’s debt management transparency.
By Mohamed GUEYE / mgueye@lequotidien.sn
- Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH
