When President Macky Sall won his presidency in 2012, Senegal was in a much different place that it is now- the once struggling economy is one of Africa’s most prominent rising stars today, well on its way to being a regional powerhouse. As President, President Sall has spent his first term focusing on whom he has termed the “forgotten”: the rural and poor communities that had fallen further down the ladder due to long-term neglect of the previous administration. Sall’s government invested heavily in social welfare programmes to begin to lift millions of Senegalese out of poverty including in healthcare in general, and especially for women and children; in grassroots entrepreneurism programs in agriculture and fishery to return the country to food self-sufficiency after a devastating drought; education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels and more.
There’s been a simultaneous outlay on roads, ports, transport, and (albeit slow) efforts made to reform government and administration. His $21 billion Plan Sénégal Émergent (PSE) in hand, Sall has managed to turn Senegal’s economy from a sliding to 4.5 15 Sunday 17 February 2019 www.businessday.ng www.facebook.com/businessdayng @businessDayNG @Businessdayng percent growth in 2011 to 6.6 percent; the longest period of sustained growth ever experienced by the country. For many in Africa, it is often enough that there have been improved road networks, increased access to primary healthcare and job creation over the course of any administration but not so in the case of Macky Sall whose Couverture Maladie Universelle has provided free health services to Senegalese children under five. He has taken bold steps towards ensuring all of Senegal has access to clean drinking water and that rural areas have reliable electricity as well. But these haven’t been the defining factors of Sall’s success as Senegal’s president. It is not the 217 kilometres of highways including Ila Touba highway that connects Touba to the rest of Senegal; nor is it the 1,000 kilometres of rural tracks and or the Blaise Diagne Airport that’s become a point of reference all over Africa. It is Sall’s forward-thinking approach and rigorous implementation of PSE that has been lauded by many as simply brilliant. Not many African countries can boast of a President that by himself, champions the cause of women’s rights.
Macky Sall’s code of nationality reforms have given women the same rights as men to transfer nationality to spouses and children. And for young people, the PRODAC initiative is well under way to create over 300,000 jobs in aquaculture, poultry and agriculture over the next five years. The Sénégal Minergy Port (SMP) is a key part for Sall’s ambitious plan for the country’s future, a special purpose vehicle that undertakes the design, building and operation of a multi-commodity dry and liquid bulk port in Bargny-Sendou. In 2018, through the launch of the Institut National du Petrole et du Gaz (INPG), Sall once again showed his commitment to human capital development. The INPG’s bold goal is to produce a new set of competitive indigenous leaders in the petroleum industry. Senegal is set to become a leading oil and gas producer and an energy hub by 2021. In the same year, he launched the first cyber-security (ENVR) school in Senegal to train people who will service the whole West African region’s defences against hackers and internet fraudsters. Perhaps, the most innovative idea executed by the Macky Sall and upon which his 2019 ambitions are predicated is the new $2 billion city, Diamniadio, which aims to decentralise Dakar by setting up a new urban city in Senegal. The city will afford some 350,000 low income, middle class and rich citizens housing within in close proximity to government offices (the Ministerial City), learning facilities (City of Knowledge), and an industrial park. It will not only ensure the stress of population growth on Dakar is eased, Diamniadio will ensure wealth and job creation alongside Sall’s grand plans for a fully developed Senegal by 2035.
The Train Express Rapide (TER) is almost complete, a high-speed rail corridor that will shuttle workers between the two cities. Six years on, President Sall has accepted the nomination of the Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition to run for a second term in the upcoming February 2019 elections. He is facing a vastly different atmosphere than his predecessor did in the run up to these elections, which bode well in his favour. Whereas between 2011and 2012 the streets of Dakar were aflame as the police and protestors engaged in running battles throughout the city. This time around, Dakar is the picture of a thriving African city, bustling with economic prosperity and stability.
Senegal is a beacon on what African leadership should be; tough and democratic, stable and forward-looking, pragmatic and building big. With its much bigger Englishspeaking neighbours faltering, an emerging Senegal is just what the doctor ordered Africa’s resurgent narrative—and young Africans in other countries better take notice. Ifedayo Adeleye is a journalist and political analyst.
