Ousmane Sonko criticises Senegal’s debt plan and proposed 2027 budget
The opposition figure says a planned debt-treatment mechanism would impose painful conditions. The IMF says its proposed $2.2 billion arrangement still needs approval.
Ousmane Sonko, Senegal’s National Assembly speaker and a leading opposition figure, criticised the country’s planned debt-treatment approach on October 19, saying its conditions would hurt people through the proposed 2027 budget, according to an AFP report published by Hindustan Times. Parliament is due to review the budget submitted by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Sonko objected to Senegal’s planned use of an enhanced version of the G20 Common Framework, a mechanism introduced in 2020 to help heavily indebted countries seek debt relief under conditions. He said Senegal could have reprofiled its debt without turning to the G20 and should not be a test case for the initiative.
Sonko’s objections to the 2027 budget
Sonko said the conditions attached to the approach were evident in the budget documents. He argued that the proposals sharply reduced social spending and investment, naming education, employment, training and subsidies for electricity and petroleum products. His account of those cuts has not been independently established in the report.
Calling the proposal an austerity budget intended to repay debt concealed from Senegalese people, Sonko said his Pastef party could not accept it. He also accused the IMF of complicity in the hidden debt and said the executive branch would bear responsibility for any deadlock. Those are Sonko’s accusations, rather than findings established by the IMF agreement.
The dispute comes after Sonko’s break with Faye. Sonko served as the president’s prime minister before being dismissed in May following months of disagreement. The AFP report estimates Senegal’s total public-sector debt at 132% of GDP at the end of 2024 and says some debt was concealed under former president Macky Sall’s administration.
Status of Senegal’s proposed IMF arrangement
On September 1, the International Monetary Fund announced that its staff and Senegalese authorities had reached a staff-level agreement on policies for a proposed 36-month Extended Credit Facility arrangement worth about $2.2 billion. The IMF said the arrangement still required management and Executive Board approval, corrective action concerning a misreporting case, and financing assurances from Senegal’s partners.
Senegal’s prime minister, Ahmadou Al Aminou Mohamed Lo, had ruled out drastic adjustment measures or harm to social sectors in early September, AFP reported. That assurance stands alongside Sonko’s later criticism of the proposed budget; parliament’s review will determine how the submitted proposals are handled.
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Sources and context
- Senegal opposition figure criticises debt-tackling mechanismHindustan Times; AFP feed, identified by the page as generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications
- IMF Reaches Staff-Level Agreement on an Extended Credit Facility Arrangement with SenegalInternational Monetary Fund
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.