The African Development Bank (AfDB) has suspended its disbursements to Senegal due to payment arrears, impacting several projects in strategic sectors.
This decision follows the Senegalese government’s failure to meet due debt repayments, according to local media, which report that the funding freeze affects a portfolio of 39 projects, representing a total commitment estimated at nearly 1.63 trillion CFA francs, particularly in the fields of energy, agriculture, and infrastructure.
This situation is having repercussions on the ground, with some staff involved in these programmes reportedly going unpaid for several months, according to the same sources.
Several contracting companies are also facing difficulties in executing the public contracts awarded to them, with some encountering increased financial constraints.
This suspension comes amid budgetary tensions, as Senegal’s sovereign rating was recently downgraded by S&P Global Ratings, which highlighted increased risks related to debt refinancing and liquidity constraints.
According to Les Échos newspaper, because of the suspension of payments, “many businesses are unable to fulfill contracts due to non-payment, some find themselves heavily indebted to banks and plunged into an even worse situation and as a result, national construction projects are experiencing inevitable delays.”
