By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Senegal’s Prime Minister, Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo on Tuesday said his country must clear billions of dollars in payment arrears to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of efforts to restore public finances.
The arrears, which stood at 1.956 trillion CFA francs ($3.5 billion) as of March 2025, if not handled could stall economic activity in Senegal and cause job losses, he added.
IMF and Senegal had last week said they had reached a staff-level agreement for a fresh $2.2 billion, three-year loan package.
A similar IMF programme was in 2024 suspended after the discovery of a misreported debt under the previous Senegalese government.
Lo said the West African country will not pursue a debt restructuring, opting instead to reprofile.
“Reprofiling involves extending maturities and renegotiating interest rates,” he said, adding that roughly 30 mining agreements are currently being renegotiated.
Senegal’s Ministry of Economy and Finance said last week it had agreed to an “enhanced common framework” to restore “debt sustainability”, adding that debt denominated in CFA would be excluded from the reworking.
Senegal says it will not restructure debt but investors often regard maturity extensions and interest rate reductions as forms of debt restructuring as they alter original terms.
