Two years of waiting have finally reached their conclusion. On Tuesday, September 1, 2026, the International Monetary Fund announced it had reached a staff level agreement with Senegal, closing a financial rift that opened back in 2024 when the country’s new leadership revealed debt levels far higher than those previously disclosed by the outgoing government.
The announcement came from Mercedes Vera Martin, the IMF’s mission chief for Senegal, at the end of a two week stay in Dakar. Fund officials and Senegalese authorities agreed on the broad economic policies that could underpin a three year programme backed by the Extended Credit Facility. The amount at stake stands at roughly 2.2 billion dollars, close to 1,245 billion CFA francs.
That figure represents 475 percent of Senegal’s quota at the institution, a level that reflects just how substantial the intended support is. The funds are meant to accompany the economic and financial reforms Dakar has planned for the 2026 to 2029 period, in a country whose growth, driven in part by its oil and gas sector, reached 6.7 percent in 2025.
Nothing is fully settled just yet, though. The agreement still needs approval from the IMF’s management and executive board, a step that is far from a mere formality. Senegalese authorities will also have to carry out corrective measures, a condition attached to the waiver request filed after the episode involving inaccurate public debt reporting. On top of that, the country still needs to secure financing assurances from its international partners.
The stakes go well beyond the budgetary chapter alone. An IMF backed programme traditionally acts as a green light for other lenders, and Dakar hopes it will help unlock fresh financing from the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other development institutions. Since the previous programme was suspended, Senegal had been forced to diversify its funding sources, signing agreements over the following months with the West African Development Bank, the French Development Agency, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and Standard Chartered, together totaling more than 311 billion CFA francs over the first seven months of the year.
The resumption of dialogue with the IMF closes one of the thorniest files of the Faye presidency, while opening a new chapter in which the country’s financial credibility will be closely watched, both by markets and by credit rating agencies.