President Macky Sall - Afrikan Heroes

Senegal Fosters Financial Inclusion With Local Companies in the Energy Sector

April 12, 2021

Since the discovery of major petroleum reserves in Senegal between 2014 and 2017, the country has been a strong advocate for positioning local content and capacity building as the key to unlocking industry growth. While Senegal does have existing local content requirements under its New Petroleum Code of 2019, the emerging petroleum player differentiates itself from other producers because it has the lead time to create local capacity in support of its oil and gas sector before it happens, rather than as an afterthought. In this sense, the country has placed a major focus on developing in-country financing capabilities necessary for training, up-skilling and engaging local companies and individuals.

A new local content law was set to be signed by President Macky Sall in the first quarter of 2020, yet COVID-19 has since delayed the implementation of the reform, and the country has turned its attention to its Economic and Social Resilience Program, which seeks to encourage public-private partnerships, lend macroeconomic and financial assistance and support private sector recovery. With first oil and gas set to flow in 2022, many local financial institutions have yet to put in place a strategy to leverage Senegal’s growing hydrocarbons market. To satisfy operators’ needs and international performance requirements, companies operating locally require funding to up-skill the indigenous labor force, yet very few local banks are able to provide viable terms and conditions, forcing local companies to find alternative financing methods. Improving access to funding for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be critical to assuring local participation in the country’s emerging hydrocarbon sector and enabling them to compete for offshore service contracts.

“Financing economic opportunities for local content will help meet the goals and vision of the Local content policies advocated by President Macky Sall. The road to shared economic prosperity in the oil and gas industry and Senegal travels through two-way streets, where all are included, and none are left in the margins of the marketplace” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber.

The quantifiable gaps in opportunity and in access to capital for local companies should define the agenda of the oil and gas industry execution of the upcoming projects”. Concluded Ayuk

In an effort to increase financial inclusion, Senegal has taken advantage of its strong mobile penetration, in which over 32% of adults have a mobile money account. Meso-finance aims to serve as the missing link for financing in emerging African economies by targeting companies whose needs cannot be met by microfinance or commercial banks. Meso-finance is an attractive model for SMEs that struggle to invest in training and new equipment due to limited access to financial resources.

Several commercial banks – including Bank of Africa and Orabank – are currently implementing specific offers to target SME development across sectors, with the underlying goal of fuelling demand for petroleum-related services. Access to financing for SMEs is also being developed by the private sector and foreign partners.

Invest in Africa (IIA) is an organization of major operators Woodside Energy, BP, Cairn and Kosmos Energy, aimed at developing local content capacity across the energy value chain. IIA unites several partner banks and financial institutions in an effort to lower the risk associated with backing local ventures, thereby increasing their own access to affordable, well-equipped local service providers and suppliers. As the market moves forward and more local players are called in, synergies between the private financial sector and the government will be critical to achieving shared local content goals.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Senegal stops fixed electricity charges paid by rice producers to Senelec

October 13, 2020

As part of efforts aimed at boosting food production and improving agriculture, the Senegalese government has ordered the removal of fixed electricity charges for rice producers. With this development, rice producers will soon no longer pay fixed charges to Senelec, the national electricity company. Macky Sall, the President of the Republic has indeed instructed his ministers of Agriculture and Energy to take measures to ensure that this charge is removed.

In Senegal, the President of the Republic, Macky Sall has instructed his ministers to abolish the fixed premium paid by agricultural producers to Senelec, the national electricity company.

“The Head of State asked the Minister of Energy and the Minister of Finance and Budget to ensure the abolition of the fixed premium on electricity, from pumping stations and rice fields, and to the exemption from non-recoverable VAT on inputs for the rice sector industry ”, we learned in the Council of Ministers press release.

The abolition of these premiums is a complaint introduced some time ago by rice producers in the Senegal River valley, whose motor pumps run on electricity. “What we can remember is that everyone has complained about the burden of the fixed premium to be paid regularly to Senelec by producers, even if the latter do not go into the countryside” , had confided last June , Mouhamadou Moctar, the governor of the region of Matam during a tour of the plantations.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowled

Senegal Sets Target for Waste to Energy Projects

February 14, 2020

Efforts to employ innovation in the management of waste disposal in Senegal got a positive nod with the government’s decision to promote waste recovery in the country. The project which will help in curbing excessive waste and mitigate pollution will see to the construction of a recovery factory in Senegal’s Kaolack region. Government sources say it will modernize waste management in this region of central-western Senegal.

According to Senegal’s Minister of Urbanism, Housing and Hygiene, the project targets to ensure that the country achieves a zero-waste status, thus the reason behind tagging it a “Zero Waste” project. This is one of the innovative initiatives of President Macky Sall of Senegal which forms part of a bigger project to help to mobilize the Senegalese people behind a strategy of social transformation, public hygiene, and cleanliness.

Within the framework of this new project, a monitoring and awareness unit of the Senegalese Ministry of Urbanism will stay for 15 days in Kaolack, to exchange and share information on “improving the living environment of the population”. The “zero waste” operation is in line with the “Cleaning day” program launched by the President on January 4, 2020. Within this framework, 250 palm trees and a hundred flower boxes have been set up in several communes in the Kaolack region. The administrative center of the region has a bad reputation, often described as “the dirtiest city in the country”.

It is in this context that the Metropolitan Agency for Household Waste (Syctom) in Île-de-France and the European Union (EU) have been supporting waste recovery in Senegal for several years. For example, the Training and Awareness Project on Sorting and Collection of Household Waste was launched and subsidized to the tune of 35 million CFA francs (€52,468) by Syctom (also Mixed Central Union for the Treatment of Household Waste) in Guédiawaye, in the suburbs of Dakar in 2015. It will eventually make it possible to train 800 to 1,000 children in 10 schools on basic hygiene and the importance of selective sorting and waste collection. At least 15 sports and cultural associations and women’s groups will be sensitized.

The IWWA project “Integrated waste management in western Africa”, financed by the European Union (EU), has also addressed the issue of solid waste management in Senegal. The project has strengthened formal and informal networks in the domain of waste management and the implementation of measures to positively influence solid waste management in the country.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry