ADEPME: Ismaïla Kébé pledges to raise the bar and take the next step for the benefit of the SME sector

It's official! The new Director General of the Agency for the Development and Support of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (ADEPME), Mr. Ismaïla Kébé, has officially taken office. The official handover ceremony was held this Thursday, July 16, 2026, at the CICES in Dakar, in the presence of the outgoing Director General, Mr. Alpha Thiam.

"ADEPME plays a central role in the dynamic transformation of our economic fabric."

During this solemn meeting, marked by emotions and gratitude, the newly appointed Director General of the Agency for the Development and Support of Small and Medium Enterprises (ADEPME), after paying tribute to his predecessor for the work accomplished at the head of the Agency, pledged to raise the bar higher and take a decisive step forward for the benefit of our network of Small and Medium Enterprises.

“The promotion of the private sector is a strategic priority for the State of Senegal. It is at the heart of the government’s vision for economic and social development, which aims to build a sovereign, inclusive and resilient economy,” stressed Ismaïla Kébé.

He adds: "This ambition is based in particular on the consolidation of a high-performing national entrepreneurial fabric, capable of driving the country's economic transformation, developing local value chains and better leveraging the opportunities offered by productive sectors."

In this regard, Mr. Kébé maintains that ADEPME plays a central role in the transformation of our economic fabric. For him, SMEs are the beating heart of the national economy and a key driver of job creation, innovation, and inclusive growth.

Despite the efforts, challenges still remain.

However, Mr. Alpha Thiam's successor lucidly recognizes that these SMEs face "numerous challenges on a daily basis, including difficulties in accessing financing, weak structuring and formalization, constraints related to market access, insufficient technical and managerial capacities, low adoption of technologies and innovation, as well as their still limited integration into value chains.

Faced with these major challenges, Mr. Ismaïla Kébé reassured everyone that "ADEPME will be fully committed" to supporting SMEs. "It positions itself as a strategic partner close to the people, attentive to their needs, and committed to providing them with concrete, tailored, and sustainable solutions," he declared, adding that its ambition is to create "a new dynamic capable of significantly boosting the development of SMEs in Senegal."

According to him, his action will be structured around clear and measurable strategic objectives, namely: accelerating the formalization of SMEs in order to strengthen a solid economic fabric, creating wealth and jobs; facilitating the mobilization of financing adapted to the needs of SMEs; promoting secure access to markets, whether it be public procurement or national, regional and international markets; and finally, supporting the industrialization and sustainable integration of SMEs into the value chains of priority sectors in the territorial clusters.

The new CEO also wanted to reassure partners, collaborators and beneficiaries while reiterating his commitment to carrying out his new role with dedication, integrity and determination, in the exclusive interest of Senegal.

Concrete results obtained within the framework of PACE, through the ETER and PAAICE programs

The outgoing Director General, for his part, gave a satisfactory assessment. "When I arrived at ADEPME, I was convinced of one thing: our country cannot succeed in its economic transformation without strong SMEs. And SMEs cannot become strong without a strong agency," stated Alpha Thiam.

“So we started by transforming the way we work. We established a true performance culture around the PARE values: Performant, Attentive, Responsible and Committed, with strengthened processes, modernized governance and a results-based management approach,” he explained.

Mr. Thiam maintains that he equipped ADEPME with a "SME Impact" Transformation Plan for 2026-2030, aligned with the Senegal 2050 National Transformation Agenda; and shifted ADEPME from a project management approach to an impact-driven one. This approach, he adds, has already yielded concrete results in 2026 within the framework of the PACE program, through the ETER and PAAICE programs.

According to Alpha Thiam, in just a few months, their support committees approved 2,316 new MSME applications and mobilized nearly 4.46 billion FCFA to finance their support plans. Of this amount, more than 3.34 billion FCFA in subsidies were granted directly to businesses.

For Ismaïla Kébé's predecessor, these figures are not mere statistics. They represent MSMEs that are investing, adopting new technologies, improving their productivity, preserving jobs and preparing for scaling up.