The Head of State, His Excellency Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar FAYE, chaired the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at the Palace of the Republic.
At the outset of his address, the Head of State mentioned the courtesy visits and condolence presentations he made in Touba and Darou Mouhty on Saturday, March 15, 2025. He extended his gratitude to the General Khalife of the Mourides, Serigne Mountakha Bassirou MBACKE, and all the religious leaders he met, for their warm welcome, the quality of the discussions, and the prayers offered for a Senegal of peace, prosperity, and solidarity.
The President of the Republic addressed the issue of auditing unfinished construction projects and works, as well as the need for a paradigm shift in managing the optimal implementation of public infrastructure. Indeed, for several years, a significant number of incomplete projects have been observed across various localities in Senegal. This is particularly evident in the sectors of higher education, basic education, vocational and technical training, health, energy, sanitation, roads, and sports.
To this end, he instructed the Prime Minister to ensure that each ministry conducts a comprehensive inventory of unfinished construction projects and proposes ways and means to restructure and relaunch these projects, in compliance with the public procurement code and the procedures under the jurisdiction of the State Judicial Agency. He also emphasized the urgency of assessing the status of projects under the PUDC, PROMOVILLES, PNDL, and PUMA programs, whose coordinated interventions contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of the territorialization of public policies.
Furthermore, the Head of State requested the Prime Minister to explore options for the institutional repositioning of the Agency for the Construction of Public Buildings and Facilities (ACBEP) in overseeing the implementation of certain basic public infrastructure projects, with standardized ceiling costs and a controlled multi-year budgetary funding model. Along the same lines, he directed the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and Budget, and the Minister in charge of Local Authorities to work with the State’s technical and financial partners to define a new intervention framework for the Agency for the Execution of Public Interest Works Against Underemployment (AGETIP) and the Municipal Development Agency (ADM), in alignment with budgetary guidelines, the guiding principles of the National Transformation Agenda, and strategies to promote youth employment.
Consequently, he highlighted the need for a comprehensive review of all sectoral projects developed or managed under the delegated authority of AGETIP and ADM, ensuring synergy between these two public entities with special statuses. Additionally, the President of the Republic urged the Minister of Finance and Budget and the Minister of Urban Planning, Local Authorities, and Territorial Development to initiate discussions with all stakeholders on a new model for consolidating available funding to implement priority public projects in each identified territorial hub.
Emphasizing the priority given to youth employment, the Head of State reminded the Government that the youthfulness of the population should encourage the State, along with economic and social actors, to collaborate in promoting entrepreneurship and the integration of young job seekers across the national territory. He instructed the Prime Minister and the Minister in charge of Employment to expedite the finalization of the “New National Employment Policy” document by the end of April 2025. He stressed the importance of establishing a high-performing and reliable governmental information system on the labor market, consistent with databases of graduates from vocational and technical training centers and Higher Institutes of Professional Education (ISEP), among others.
The President of the Republic called on the Prime Minister to accelerate the harmonization of interventions and the pooling of resources of all public structures promoting entrepreneurship and youth employment. Addressing the modernization of the pension and social security system, the Head of State instructed the Government to place this issue at the heart of enhancing work value and the State’s social protection policy.
Today, the structure of Senegal’s population and the gradual increase in life expectancy call for proactive financial management of health and social expenditures, particularly those related to pensions and social security. He directed the Minister in charge of Labor and Employment, in collaboration with social partners, to finalize the draft Unified Social Security Code, a piece of legislation aimed at significantly improving the governance of social welfare institutions [Senegal Retirement Pension Institution (IPRES), Social Security Fund (CSS), and Health Insurance Institution (IPM)]. In the same vein, the President invited the Minister of Finance and Budget to pay special attention to controlling healthcare costs for State employees, ensuring the financial sustainability of Universal Health Coverage, and maintaining the systematic and long-term balance of the National Retirement Fund (FNR). To this end, he instructed the Minister of Finance and Budget and the Minister in charge of Labor to provide, by the end of July 2025, an assessment of the financial situation of the pension system (FNR and IPRES) and its future outlook, considering short-, medium-, and long-term labor market dynamics.
Finally, he underscored the need to explore options for increasing the lowest pensions and engaging with State employees, workers, and social partners in a process to encourage the rapid establishment of supplementary pensions through capitalization.
In his address, the Prime Minister highlighted the recurring concerns of agricultural producers regarding difficulties in selling certain harvests, particularly peanuts, horticultural products, and maize, primarily due to dysfunctions in marketing channels.
In this regard, he emphasized the need to ensure the proper functioning of all components of agricultural value chains, including the involvement of financial intermediaries, in line with the goal of food sovereignty outlined in the Vision Senegal 2050 Agenda. Given this situation, and in anticipation of the Korité and Easter holidays, with the burdens faced by households, he invited the Ministers in charge of Agriculture, Finance, and Trade to submit urgent measures for approval by the President of the Republic by Monday, March 24, 2025, at the latest, to address the issue of unsold stocks of peanuts, horticultural products, and maize.
On a more structural level, he requested the aforementioned Ministers to establish, by mid-April 2025 at the latest, an interministerial consultation framework dedicated to addressing the broader issue of agricultural product marketing. Addressing the second point of his communication, the Prime Minister recalled that the Government’s fundamental approach to Senegal’s systemic transformation requires strengthening a performance culture within the public administration, both at the level of each entity in the public and parastatal sectors and among their agents. He noted the regulatory progress achieved through Senegal’s adoption of the UEMOA harmonized public finance framework, particularly the introduction of results-based management.
However, the Prime Minister deplored the inefficiency of this system due to the lack of commitment from key stakeholders, delays in implementing its monitoring and evaluation components, and, above all, the absence of robust rules for setting annual individual objectives for agents and evaluating their performance. This situation explains the inability to differentiate individual agent performance.
Consequently, the Prime Minister instructed the Minister in charge of the Public Service, in collaboration with the Minister of Finance and the Minister, Secretary General of the Government, to prioritize the issue of individual agent performance evaluation in the 2025 roadmap of the 2025-2029 Action Plan of the Vision Senegal 2050 Agenda.
Finally, the Prime Minister raised the issue of non-compliance with the obligation to refurbish the facades of public and private buildings. To this end, he requested the Minister in charge of Urban Planning to propose measures on this issue in accordance with current regulations.
UNDER THE MINISTERS’ COMMUNICATIONS:
- The Minister of Industry and Trade provided an update on the supply of essential goods to the market;
- The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Livestock reported on the peanut marketing campaign and the monitoring of the horticultural campaign.
The Minister of Vocational and Technical Training, Government Spokesperson, Amadou Moustapha Njekk SARRE