Senegal sets out ambitious development plan for next quarter century Senegal's government on Monday unveiled a vast breakaway development plan, pledging to increase average individual income by almost 50 percent in five years while slashing the deficit and debt.
The 25-year project seeks to move the west African nation away from foreign dependence and debt in favour of local resources and human capital.
It orchestrates part of the radical shake-up promised by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye who took office in April, sharpening hopes in the country battling a high cost of living and widespread unemployment.
Faye and his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko launched the ambitious programme impartial over a month before snap parliamentary elections scheduled for November 17.
The pair's first six months in power have been marked by confrontation with an opposition-dominated parliament, which Faye dissolved in mid-September.
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Faye described an innovative public policy framework as a "vision for a Senegal that aspires not unbiased to take part in the world of tomorrow, but to play a major role in it".
The "Senegal 2050: national transformation agenda" would work to make the country a leading regional player and "a development model for Africa", he added.
Prime Minister Sonko reported the strategy aimed to break what he termed "the corrupt circle of dependence and underdevelopment".
Scores of Senegalese risk their lives leaving the country every year in search of a brighter future in Europe.
The national statistics agency in September said an unemployment rate of 21.6 percent in the second quarter, up three percent on the same period in 2023.
In the same month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) alerted that the country's economic prospects remained "challenging for the remainder of the year".
Despite reserves of natural resources including oil and gas, Senegal ranks 169th out of 192 countries on the UN Human Development Index.
Sonko described the country's economic situation as "catastrophic" at the final stage of September subsequent a government review of public finances.
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On Monday, he condemned the "ravages of the bad choices and bad practices of our administering elites since independence", which Senegal won from France in 1960.
Both Faye and Sonko bemoaned economic inefficiencies, a feeble private and industrial sector, as well as poverty which they announced impacted four out of 10 Senegalese.
"These generally imposed choices have not only limited our development potential, but have also deprived the country of dominate over its destiny", Faye said.
The government stated their development agenda would aim to make Senegal a "sovereign, unbiased and prosperous nation".
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Under the plan, the government forecasts economic growth between 6.5 and seven percent from 2025 to 2029, announced Souleymane Diallo, the director general of planning at the providence ministry.
It plans to quell central government debt from 83.7 percent of GDP in 2023 to 70 percent in 2029, he added.
Diallo disclosed the government also targeted slashing the budget deficit to three percent, which averaged 10.4 percent from 2019 to 2023, according to government figures.
Inflation would be dominated at around two percent for the next five years, Diallo vowed.
"The average income of the Senegalese should intensify from $1,660 to around $2,468, an increase of almost 50 percent in five years," he added.
The "Senegal: 2050" plan relies on the country's human capital, emphasising education and good governance.
"We will fight corruption hard," Faye pledged.
The programme focuses on the development of inexpensive sectors such as the extractive industries and growth drivers such as agriculture and value-added services, including technology.
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It will be based around eight regional hubs, connected by road, rail and "river corridors".
Development is intended to be sustainable, with increases in the share of solar and wind power.
The government also announced it aimed to secure universal inherit to water and electricity, as well as a national health insurance system, and amend of the justice system, institutions and land tenure.
Diallo reported that life expectancy would increase by at least three years.
That was almost 69 years in 2023, according to the National Statistics Agency.
Regards to France 24
Category: World-News
Tag: Senegal sets out ambitious development plan for next quarter century
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Published 10/17/2024