The handling of the situation stemming from the so-called hidden debt scandal is a “real disaster”, according to Khalifa Ababacar Sall, opposition leader and former Dakar mayor.
He told 7TV television channel on Friday: “The Senegalese state is currently borrowing at high rates, particularly to repay its debts. It’s a real disaster. The way they’re borrowing is just a mess. You’re borrowing to repay debts, and it’s investment that suffers.
The IMF has suspended its programme with Senegal, and rating agencies are downgrading the country’s credit rating. As a result, the state is forced to mobilise resources on the local market at rates that can exceed 8%. What they’re doing is suicide.”
Sall said since the Pastef regime came to power, “not a single brick” has been laid. “Everything that has been inaugurated is Macky Sall’s project. Those currently in power have only themselves to blame, because they have put themselves in a situation where they can only pay salaries and debts. The state is a myth, and if you shatter that myth, you’re the first to suffer. Today, those in power are the first to pay,” he lamented.
For Khalifa Sall, it is essential to reconnect with partners and move away from rhetoric that could isolate Senegal from those who can help it. “I hear them citing the example of countries that refused debt restructuring. But these countries have other resources that can compensate for the void left by their partners. In Senegal’s case, if oil, zircon, gold, and agriculture generated sufficient resources to allow the country to be self-reliant, the situation could have been less complicated. But if you don’t have those, you are forced to work with partners,” he advised.
Seneweb