President Macky SALL of Senegal receives the President of EBID
The President of the Republic of Senegal, His Excellency Macky SALL, last Thursday, 8th July 2021, received the President of EBID, Dr. George Agyekum Donkor, at the Presidential Palace (“Palais de la Republique”) Plateau, in Dakar. The President of EBID was accompanied by the Senegalese Minister of State for Economy, Planning and International Cooperation, Honourable Amadou HOTT, and some officers of the Bank.
Welcoming and expressing his delight at the visit, President Macky SALL congratulated the President of EBID on his appointment to the high regional office and pledged his support and that of his Government to him and the Bank so that the Bank could continue to pursue its developmental agenda within the ECOWAS region.
President Macky SALL recalled with great satisfaction the various interventions by the Bank in the critical sectors of the Senegalese economy and appealed to the Bank to continue to support the country’s priority sectors as envisaged in its national strategic document.
President Macky SALL highlighted a number of achievements by his Government in terms of GDP growth, educational support, universal health coverage, with a focus on women and children, roads and highways, among others and invited EBID to see how the Bank could collaborate with the Republic of Senegal to expand and concretize these initiatives.
His Excellency Macky SALL indicated that though his Government rolled out a long-term development plan, he quickly had to implement an ambitious participatory emergency plan with the view to improving the living conditions and wellbeing of the people.
Responding to President Macky SALL’s welcoming remarks, the President of EBID lauded His Excellency’s bold initiatives that have turned around the macroeconomic indicators in the Republic of Senegal. In this regard, the President of EBID noted that under the leadership of President Macky SALL, the Senegalese economy recorded a significant growth from 1.3% in 2011 to 4.0% in 2012 and further to 4.4% in 2019. According to him, the Senegalese economy achieved great resilience despite the COVID-19 situation. The President of EBID further noted that with the population of about 16.1 million, a GDP of circa USD 25 billion was very encouraging. Furthermore, with the Debt-to-GDP and inflation at 66% and 2.5% respectively, the President expressed optimism that the country was on the part of economic recovery.
The President of EBID disclosed that EBID’s total commitment to ECOWAS Member States as at the end of June 2020 stood at USD 2.5 billion for both public and private sector projects out of which Senegal benefitted to the tune of USD 300 million or FCFA 165 billion. He further intimated that there were other three (3) projects in Senegal to the tune of FCFA 65 billion awaiting disbursements.
Touching on the implementation of the second phase (2019-2024) of the national strategic document known as “Plan for Emerging Senegal (PES)”, the President of EBID underscored the key thematic areas namely structural transformation of the economy, promoting human capital and enabling good governance and rule of law as key drivers of growth and development. Therefore, he reiterated EBID’s continuous support to the Republic of Senegal as the key areas of the plan align with the mission of the Bank.
Finally, the President commended the Senegalese President for his leadership and efforts at developing the Republic of Senegal in terms of roads and railways infrastructure, agriculture, technology, energy and transport while attracting direct foreign investments. He expressed the hope that the strong partnership between Senegal and the Bank will be strengthened and consolidated during his tenure.
