The Head of State, His Excellency Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar FAYE, chaired the weekly Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, at the Palace of the Republic.
At the outset of his address, the President of the Republic extended his warm congratulations and sincere thanks to the populations of Saint-Louis, Dagana, and Podor for their mobilization and warm welcome during his economic tour on June 12 and 13, 2025. He thanked and commended the administrative authorities, state services, local elected officials, producers, and stakeholders in the agricultural and industrial sectors for their remarkable work and the smooth execution of visits to scheduled sites. He congratulated the Government, particularly the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Livestock, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, the Minister in charge of Local Authorities, and the Secretary of State for Cooperatives and Farmer Support, for their efforts to promote territorial development and food sovereignty.
In this regard, he emphasized the need to better support and assist stakeholders in the various agricultural and industrial sectors of the Senegal River natural region. This eco-geographical zone, with exceptional potential, must become a "priority national agricultural hub" in terms of water management, mechanization, development of infrastructure and cultivated areas, agro-industry, and processing industries for agricultural products. To this end, it is essential to significantly strengthen the rice, tomato, onion, potato, biofuel (ethanol), and sugar sectors, with sugar remaining a key asset for our food sovereignty.
The Head of State further highlighted the necessity of an optimal combination of family (subsistence) agriculture and agribusiness to establish equitable land, economic, and social governance in the agricultural sector. He called on the Government to continue and intensify support for producers in the northern region, focusing on improving yields in agricultural perimeters (particularly rice fields), while also establishing a modernized and efficient financing system and better management of operating costs (especially electricity) for farmers and industrialists. Additionally, efforts should be made, in collaboration with community agricultural cooperatives, to certify national products and improve their integration into distribution networks and commercialization channels. This economic tour demonstrated that sustained territorialization of the National Transformation Agenda must remain a guiding principle for the effectiveness of public policies and the performance of government action.
Hence, the imperative to promote ongoing territorial dialogue with grassroots economic and social stakeholders. In this regard, the President stressed the urgency of rehabilitating and updating agricultural extension and rural animation tools and instruments, adapting them to technological advancements, to accelerate the establishment of regional development hubs through consultation with stakeholders and community participation. These hubs remain the true vehicles for projects and programs aimed at a sovereign, just, and prosperous Senegal, rooted in the nation’s core values. Modernizing our agricultural system and achieving food sovereignty fundamentally depend on securing land tenure for agricultural operations, adequate financing for farmers, and promoting private investment in agriculture.
To this end, the Head of State instructed the Government, under the Prime Minister’s supervision, to initiate appropriate consultations and undertake necessary steps to accelerate the implementation of a consensual land reform, building on diagnostics, studies, reports, proposals, conclusions, and recommendations, particularly those of the National Land Reform Commission (CNRF). This major reform, part of the National Transformation Agenda, is essential to support modern and sustainable agriculture, with the involvement of local authorities and all stakeholders, fostering the development of small family farms as well as agribusiness. It should also contribute to better management of national space and concerted, inclusive, and sustainable territorial planning, particularly in rural areas, in alignment with ongoing processes to deepen decentralization and update the agro-sylvo-pastoral orientation law currently being finalized. The President directed the Government to focus land reform discussions on the goal of effectively granting proper property titles to legal land and plot holders for residential use across Senegal.
In this spirit, access to land and real estate ownership will be facilitated by leveraging land as collateral for obtaining credit. Furthermore, the Head of State urged the Government to ensure optimal management of state and national domains by improving land potential mapping and management tools and systematically preventing and resolving land disputes. To conclude this chapter, he called on the Government to prepare a communication plan for the proposed land reform to ensure its collective appropriation by grassroots communities, local authorities, farmers, herders, investors, and other economic operators.
The President also revisited the first edition of the Public Administrators and Managers Conference (CAMP) held on January 20, 2025. During this meeting, he shared his vision for governance in the public and parastatal sectors with all administrations. He reminded the Government of the urgency to take all necessary measures to update the general civil service statute and regulations for non-civil servant agents, finalize the Public Agents’ Code of Ethics, the Continuous Training Development Plan for public agents, and revise the academic, legal, administrative, and financial frameworks for national training schools, particularly the National School of Administration (ENA). He also emphasized the importance of completing the annual performance evaluation process for public agents and accelerating the full digitalization of administrations under the “New Deal technologique” to improve service quality for users and citizens.
Additionally, the Head of State reminded the Government of the need for close monitoring of the governance and financial performance of parastatal entities under administrative, technical, and financial oversight. He requested that the Minister of Public Service and Public Service Reform deliver a quarterly report to the Council of Ministers on the progress of public service and public administration modernization reforms. Similarly, he invited the Minister of Finance and Budget to provide a quarterly report on the management of the state’s portfolio.
Regarding his diplomatic agenda, the President informed the Council that he will participate in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, on June 22, 2025. In his address, Prime Minister Ousmane SONKO discussed state reforms and the quality of public administration representation in the deliberative bodies of parastatal entities. On state reforms, he noted that they are a critical component for the successful implementation of public policies.
To coordinate, guide, and monitor these reforms, the Prime Minister announced the establishment of a dedicated unit within the Prime Minister’s Office. The anticipated changes cover several key areas for improving the business environment and modernizing public administration, including citizens’ right to access information, extensive digital transformation, human capital development through training to instill strong civic and patriotic values and skills needed for expected performance, “social rebasing” for greater equity and transparency in public and parastatal sector remuneration systems, and the development of an inclusive and sustainable social protection system.
The Prime Minister strongly reaffirmed the Government’s determination to successfully carry out this major undertaking and instructed the Minister, Secretary General of the Government, to develop a roadmap for the optimal implementation of reforms, addressing potential challenges through a change management framework.
On the second point regarding the quality of public administration representation in the deliberative bodies of parastatal entities, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of essential functions in delivering quality public services, executing missions of general interest, creating jobs, and regulating priority sectors. He deplored serious, recurring shortcomings contrary to transparency and good governance principles, which undermine public service quality, including the failure to hold pre-council meetings on strategic issues, lack of systematic reporting, poor documentation archiving, non-compliance with the validity period of administrators’ mandates, and inadequate representation due to unsuitable profiles of some administrators.
Based on this assessment, the Prime Minister urged Ministers to promptly regularize the composition of deliberative bodies, particularly in the current context of institutional changes. He also called for careful selection of representatives in these bodies, in compliance with the relevant provisions of Decree No. 2025-670 of April 29, 2025, which sets the operating rules for deliberative bodies of parastatal entities.
MINISTERIAL COMMUNICATIONS:
- The Minister attached to the President of the Republic in charge of Monitoring, Steering, and Evaluation of the Senegal 2050 National Transformation Agenda presented on the strategic steering of the Senegal 2050 National Transformation Agenda.
- The Minister of Industry and Commerce presented on the Senegal 2050 Industrial and Commercial Policy.
LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY TEXTS: The Council reviewed and adopted:
- The draft law authorizing the President of the Republic to ratify the Extradition Convention between the Government of the Republic of Senegal and the Government of the United Arab Emirates, signed in Abu Dhabi on October 14, 2021.
- The draft law on the transfer of convicted persons between the Government of the Republic of Senegal and the Government of the United Arab Emirates, signed in Abu Dhabi on October 14, 2021.
- The draft law on judicial assistance in criminal matters between the Government of the Republic of Senegal and the Government of the United Arab Emirates, signed in Abu Dhabi on October 14, 2021.
- The draft decree establishing and setting the organization and functioning rules of the National Coordination Center for the Early Warning and Response Mechanism to Security Risks.
- The draft Amending Finance Law for 2025.
- The Multi-Year Budget and Economic Programming Document (DPBEP) 2026-2028.
Minister of Vocational and Technical Training, Government Spokesperson
Amadou Moustapha Njekk SARRE