The torches were finally lit. They now light up the paths lined with hedges made of oil, on the one hand, and gas on the other, which have brought Senegal into the circle of producing countries. An era of opportunities is therefore dawning.
However, these opportunities will only turn into success if and only if the challenges they face are addressed in the right direction. And, it must be said, these challenges are great but not to the point of being an insurmountable mountain. That being said, the management of oil and gas rents seems to be the most critical aspect in the governance of natural resources. Moreover, it is not for nothing that it interests and concerns public authorities, civil society organizations and populations alike. Rightly so, because history has shown that not all oil and gas producing countries always benefit as much as they believed in the first days of the announcement of the discoveries.
This is even more true in Africa where the management of revenues generated by natural resources is not the best. Most of the time, the euphoria fades very quickly because of disastrous governance. And often, when the announced blessing does not turn into a curse (civil wars for example), it is the “Dutch disease” which destroys the hopes of an entire people. But as Professor Paul Collier, professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Oxford, pointed out during a conference in Dakar, “natural resources do not determine the future of a country, but political choices.” He added that two countries could contain the same natural resources in their subsoil and exploit them at the same time and yet experience different fates. To support his remarks, Professor Collier gave the case of Botswana and Sierra Leone, two countries rich in diamonds.
When the first, landlocked, monopolizes the first places in the world in terms of economic growth and human development index, the second, coastal country, sinks to the bottom of these same rankings. “The choices your government makes will determine whether you succeed like Botswana or fail like Sierra Leone. There is no other area of economic opportunity and economic policy that is so sensitive to political choice as natural resource management,” he concluded. This example in the diamond field is applicable to all mineral resources.
-In this area, models of success exist and the subject is very well documented. Norway is cited as an example. It will not be a question of copying to the letter what this Scandinavian country has done, but of drawing inspiration from good practices likely to prevent Senegal from failing in the management of this windfall. When comparisons are on the table, failure is not an option. It is enough to respect the triptych – clear rules, solid institutions and informed citizens – which are said to be the foundation of a government policy in the governance of oil and gas resources, to escape the trap of the curse oil.
Senegal has already taken actions which can, however, encourage optimism (Oil Code, Gas Code, law on local content, law on the distribution of revenues, Cos-Pétrogaz, Permanent Secretariat for monitoring local content, National Institute of Oil and Gas, Gas Network, Gas to Power Strategy, etc.) the challenge is to ensure that these three elements are present, over time, in the decision-making chain. Then, we can hope to see the flame of the torch continue to illuminate Senegal’s march towards emergence.
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