During the council of ministers held at the presidential palace on October 2, 2024, the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, sent his congratulations to Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko as well as to the entire government. These thanks followed the presentation of a detailed report on the state of public finances, a subject at the heart of the country’s current concerns.
The president spoke of the difficult legacy left by the previous regime, highlighting significant discrepancies in financial statistics and their repercussions on state management. Due to these anomalies, Bassirou Diomaye Faye asked Ousmane Sonko to implement immediate measures to remedy the situation. These actions aim to quickly restore budgetary management consistent with constitutional and legislative standards, thus guaranteeing rigorous financial governance.
These congratulations come after the Prime Minister, on September 26, 2024, openly criticized the financial management of the former government. He notably accused his predecessors of having manipulated the budget deficit and public debt figures. Sonko revealed that the real deficit between 2019 and 2023 averaged 10.4% of GDP, while the official figure was 5.5%. The public debt, for its part, was undervalued, standing at 76.3% of GDP instead of the 65.9% announced by the old regime.
Furthermore, Ousmane Sonko denounced the anticipated use of 600 billion FCFA planned for 2024, thus complicating current budgetary management. This situation forced his government to resort to unforeseen borrowing, such as the issuance of Eurobonds in 2024. The Prime Minister pledged to restore transparency in public finances by launching in-depth audits and informing institutions such as the IMF of the irregularities discovered.
Sonko promised to continue efforts to redress the country’s financial situation while ensuring more transparent and standards-compliant financial governance.
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