ONFP: First female director general, Dr. Mame Awa Ndoye wants to "accelerate the transformation"

The National Office for Vocational Training (ONFP) is changing leadership. After 26 months at the helm, Mouhamadou Lamine Lô is handing over the reins to Dr. Mame Awa Ndoye, the first woman to become the Office's Director General since its creation in 1986. The handover ceremony took place on Monday, August 11, at the ONFP headquarters, against a backdrop of growth in skills training and new ambitions to better align training with the needs of the economy.

The figure illustrates the scale of the shift that has occurred in recent years. Between 2023 and 2024, training programs leading to qualifications represented on average 20% of ONFP's activities. In 2025, this proportion rose to 57%, according to the outgoing director general.

Mouhamadou Lamine Lô explains this growth by a reorientation of the offering towards sectors considered more promising, notably construction, industry and digital technology. "Beyond the numbers, it's this qualitative evolution of what we do," he emphasized during the ceremony.

The outgoing director also highlighted the improvement of working conditions, the strengthening of the Office's resources and the establishment of more operational branches.

Large-scale projects to pursue

Several projects now await the new management. Among them is a 612 million FCFA project to train nearly 2,000 people in the field of resilient agriculture. A program developed with AGEROUTE is also expected to reach approximately 4,000 beneficiaries, with funding exceeding one billion FCFA.

Mouhamadou Lamine Lô also mentioned several training projects prepared with Spanish cooperation and other partners. These initiatives, he said, illustrate the ONFP's ability to mobilize funding and operate on a larger scale.

Digitalization is also among the key changes highlighted. The Office now has an integrated training management system developed by its own teams. This system allows Senegalese citizens to submit applications for distance learning. Scholarship applications are also managed through calls for proposals, with the stated objective of increasing accessibility and transparency.

Dr. Mame Awa Ndoye's roadmap to accelerate

Upon taking the reins of the ONFP, Dr. Mame Awa Ndoye praised the work of her predecessor and expressed her desire to continue the projects already underway.

“We are not abandoning the work begun before us. We are enriching it and passing it on,” she declared, placing her mandate under the banner of continuity, but also acceleration. A physician by training who rose through the ranks at the Ministry of Health, she now intends to make vocational training “an engine of economic sovereignty, job creation, and competitiveness.” The new Director General thus wants to lead the ONFP into a phase of “industrializing vocational training.”

Five priorities have been announced: improving governance and performance, continuing the digitalization of procedures and services, developing training adapted to strategic sectors of the economy, strengthening partnerships with training centers, communities and economic actors, and focusing more on innovation and the evaluation of results.

She also wants to strengthen workplace learning, improve teaching quality and facilitate access to training for young people, women and vulnerable populations.

The Secretary General of the Ministry of Employment, Vocational and Technical Training, Mamadou Camara Fall, emphasized the importance of making vocational training a true lever for meeting the skills needs of the labor market. He stated that collaboration between the National Office for Vocational Training (ONFP), businesses, training centers, and other stakeholders in the ecosystem must remain central to this approach.

As the Office approaches its 40th anniversary, the new director takes the helm with a dual objective: to consolidate the achievements of the previous leadership and to better align training programs with the needs of businesses and local communities. A new chapter thus begins for the ONFP, with a clear ambition: to provide more training, but above all, to train people according to the jobs, skills, and professions of tomorrow.