Absolutely avoid default or turn crisis into opportunity
By Doudou Ka, former Minister of Economy of Senegal
A moment of national truth
Senegal is going through an unprecedented crisis: cash flow tensions, collapse of eurobonds, institutional uncertainties, lack of financing agreement with the IMF…
The risk of default is no longer theoretical, it is real!
But a crisis is not a condemnation. It can become a historic turning point if faced with courage, clarity, and unity.
In 1998, Malaysia, hit hard by the Asian crisis, avoided default thanks to a sovereign, coherent, and courageous strategy. This choice of leadership restored its credibility, economy, and national unity. This is the lesson we must meditate on today.
1. Default: a moral as well as financial failure
A default is not just a question of numbers. It affects households, entrepreneurs, businesses, currency, and employment in daily life.
What is at stake is our economic sovereignty.
Avoiding default means rejecting postures: seeking solutions rather than scapegoats, taking action rather than just communicating.
A nation does not recover in noise, but in discipline, truth, and cohesion.
Malaysia showed the way:
• facing the real situation;
• setting aside ego quarrels;
• deciding for the common good.
It is in this collective clarity that the strength of a people is born.
2. Turning crisis into opportunity
In 1998, Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister, chose a sovereign and pragmatic path:
• temporary capital controls,
• restructuring of banks and debt,
• support for productive sectors,
• refusal of harsh austerity imposed from outside.
This approach restored confidence without giving up national sovereignty. Senegal can also draw inspiration from this strategy: rethink its economic model, public governance, the size and scope of its administration, its approach to debt, and define the role of the national private sector.
3. Three levers for a Senegalese revival
- Tell the truth about the numbers:
Total transparency on debt, liabilities, calculation methods, and state commitments is the first condition to regain internal and external trust.
- Forge a national economic pact:
A republican front for economic stability, above political divides, based on state continuity and mobilization of skills.
No lasting reform can arise from division.
- Launch a realistic economic recovery plan:
Protect domestic debt, stabilize liquidity, reprofile external debt, revive investment in targeted priority productive sectors, reduce state spending with the clear objective of achieving a positive primary balance, reform the size of the administration and governance of strategic public enterprises, boost private investment, and promote FDI.
It is on these three pillars that renewed trust can be built.
4. The moral test of a generation
The real danger is not economic, but moral: division, vengeance, economic paralysis, social chaos.
Patriotism is not proclaimed, it is proven—by telling the truth, protecting the people, prioritizing the common good, refusing collapse.
For it is in the storm that the greatness of a nation is measured, and the stature of statesmen.
Conclusion: choosing between reaction and transformation
Every crisis opens two paths:
• political reaction, leading to default;
• strategic transformation, building the future.
Malaysia chose the second path. Senegal can and must also draw inspiration from it, to make this ordeal an opportunity for rebirth. As long as it makes its many partners—including the IMF—allies in a bold and rigorous strategy, rather than adversaries.
The choice is in our hands: to endure the crisis, or to rise above it. History will judge our courage, not our excuses.
