On May 10, the Senegalese President Macky Sall launched a program of financial allocations for more than 500,000 poor households to help them cope with the effects of the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 epidemic. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, oil prices have soared on world markets, fuelling a sharp rise in fuel and food prices in many countries, including Senegal.
"To provide solutions to the unfavorable situation, I have decided to support 542,956 households to receive an exceptional financial cash transfer from the state in the amount of 43.4 billion CFA francs [66 million euros]," said Macky Sall during a ceremony at the Grand Théâtre de Dakar. "The objective is to give 80,000 CFA francs [121 euros] per household and improve their level of consumption and education of their children," added the president, who called the operation "an exceptional emergency measure."
The authorities said the government would use mobile payments to transfer funds to poor households. The funds to finance this operation come from a World Bank project with other donors, including Germany and the United Kingdom, said the World Bank's director of operations for Senegal, Nathan Belete.
The country's economy returned to its pre-Covid-19 growth trajectory last year. Still, the war in Ukraine "clouds the outlook" for the economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a March statement.
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