The World Bank and Senegal signed four agreements this Friday worth 423 million dollars (more than 232 billion FCFA), including 241 million dollars in the form of a donation. This new funding will support several development projects.

The global financial institution is providing initial additional funding of 134 million dollars, including 50% in donations for the Covid-19 Response Project. The second additional funding concerns 110 million dollars, including 70 million in the form of a grant, for the Social Safety Nets Support Project. This support includes resources from the International Development Association (IDA), but also $30 million from the German Cooperation Trust Fund (BMZ) administered by the World Bank. It will allow the State to deploy exceptional social assistance through cash transfers, to help vulnerable families overcome the Covid-19 crisis and deal with future climate shocks. Productive support will also be scaled up for the benefit of the poorest households and farmers, to help them improve their income-generating activities.

The third agreement concerns universal access to electricity. An initial financing of 129 million dollars, half of which was a donation, in support of the Regional Electricity Access Project was thus signed. The objective of the latter is to increase access to electricity from the electricity grid from substations on the transmission lines of the West African Electrical Energy Exchange System, especially in areas that are less served and with a higher incidence of poverty, especially in Casamance. The fourth and last financing concerns land, whose first and last major reform dates back to 1964. It involves 80 million dollars, half of which is a donation, and is intended for the Cadastre and Land Security Project (Procasef). It responds to the request of the government and its desire to improve land governance through the establishment of a national cadastre.