Health, education, recruitment and more: The Minister Delegate for the Budget gives an update (social climate)

Government members faced the press on Monday to give an update on the social climate and the implementation of the national stability pact.

Speaking to journalists, Bassirou Sarr, Minister to the Minister of Economy, Finance and Planning, in charge of the Budget , assured that "the State of Senegal is doing everything possible to maintain its mandatory expenditures", including "salaries and workers' benefits", despite the current financial difficulties.

Regarding the pact itself, he raised the issue of housing allowances. Bassirou Sarr indicated that this point was fully addressed by the decree of January 7, which provides for allowances of 100,000 CFA francs.

"Today, the State has already paid 13,237,000,000 CFA francs for the benefit of 13,000 agents and, for the rest of the year, the total amount is projected at 15,864,000,000 CFA francs, which allows this grievance to be fully satisfied," he indicates.

Regarding healthcare contract workers, Bassirou Sarr announced that an allocation of 1,282,000,000 CFA francs has been included in the supplementary budget law. "This amount will be consolidated into the 2027 budget law to make it a permanent entitlement for these healthcare workers," the minister assured.

As part of the social stability pact, the government committed to recruiting 2,500 healthcare workers at a total cost of 14.5 billion CFA francs per year. This commitment is "being fulfilled," the minister stated.

“We are planning to recruit an additional 3,000 agents to strengthen our health system. This represents a total of 31 billion CFA francs in new spending each year, in addition to the recruitments planned for 2027,” he says.

In the education and higher education sectors, the State had committed to recruiting 500 university professors as part of a three-year program that included 1,500 recruitments. "Here too, every effort is being made to ensure that the first wave is fully integrated," the minister assured.

Regarding employment, Bassirou Sarr stated that the government has been working for two years to support businesses. He indicated that in 2025, 490 billion CFA francs were paid to them in arrears.

"We are continuing this effort in 2026 with a budget of 300 billion, which is also supplemented by another amount of 269 billion dedicated to clearing arrears in respect of taxes and duties," he assures.