Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye met International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the Fund’s headquarters in Washington on 15 September 2026, with both sides pledging to move quickly towards a new IMF-supported programme.
The meeting followed a staff-level agreement reached on 1 September, at the end of an IMF mission to Dakar, on a three-year, $2.2 billion arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility. The programme still requires approval by the IMF Executive Board before funds can be disbursed.
In a statement after the meeting, Georgieva said: “Senegal has made encouraging progress in strengthening the economy and improving the outlook for investments, jobs and growth.” She welcomed the authorities’ commitment to pursue a debt treatment and restore fiscal sustainability, and said the two sides would work expeditiously towards the new programme.
HIDDEN DEBT LEGACY
Senegal’s previous IMF programme, worth $1.8 billion, was frozen after the discovery of borrowing misreported under the previous administration. The IMF estimates the undisclosed debt at more than $11 billion, and the country’s debt burden reached 132% of GDP at the end of 2024. The IMF mission to Dakar that produced the agreement ran from 19 August to 1 September. Under the agreement, Senegal will seek a debt treatment to restore debt sustainability.
BOARD APPROVAL NEXT
Final Executive Board approval depends on decisive corrective measures related to the past misreporting and on financing assurances from Senegal's partners. The programme is also intended to help unlock additional financing from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.