The relief is palpable, the expectations are immense: On 1 September 2026, Senegal and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a staff-level agreement for a 36-month loan programme worth $2.2 billion. Having campaigned on a promise of transparency in the 2024 presidential elections, the government soon found itself facing an unexpectedly high level of debt.
A report by the Court of Auditors revealed that between 2019 and 2024, the previous government led by President Macky Sall took on undisclosed loans worth 25 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). At the end of 2024, public debt suddenly reached the equivalent of 132 per cent of GDP, triggering a downward spiral of poor financing conditions, a loss of…