Financing guarantees from official creditors will pave the way for the IMF board to review Senegal’s program. In Bangkok, Zeine Ould Zeidane, director of the institution’s Africa department, describes a multi-step procedure and highlights progress in discussions, without announcing a resolution date.
Senegal does not need to have concluded all its individual debt treatment agreements for its program to be presented to the International Monetary Fund board. The decisive step is to obtain financing guarantees from official creditors, explained Zeine Ould Zeidane in response to Senegalese journalist Abdoulaye Cissé (TFM Group) during a press conference organized in Bangkok, on the occasion of the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings.
“For the IMF to present the file to the board of directors, financing guarantees regarding debt treatment from official creditors are needed – not from all creditors, but from official creditors,” specified the Africa department director, when asked about the progress of the Senegalese file.
The distinction is essential: these guarantees are a prerequisite for the program review, separate from the agreements that will need to be negotiated with each creditor. “This is only about financing guarantees. It is not about treatment agreements with creditors,” he emphasized.
According to the sequence presented by the IMF official, the agreement of the official creditors committee of the common framework on the Senegalese proposal would allow this step to be taken. “This will pave the way for us to present the program to the board of directors and get it approved.” Individual negotiations with creditors would then be the next step.
Regarding the status of discussions, Zeine Ould Zeidane was positive. “We have reached an agreement at the services level,” he recalled, highlighting the government’s work to advance the reforms supported by the program. Authorities have also hired financial advisors and expressed their desire to benefit from debt treatment within the common framework.
The Africa department director mentioned a meeting held the day before at the Global Roundtable on Sovereign Debt, the GSDR, with the main official bilateral creditors of Senegal and the minister. “The discussion was positive,” he indicated.
The IMF is also mobilizing its “good offices,” offered, according to him, “for the first time in a structured manner,” to facilitate a quick resolution of the file. A first meeting brought together official and private creditors.
To expedite the process, Senegal could benefit from the work done within the GSDR, particularly from the debt treatment master plan and models of agreements with G20 countries. However, the IMF official did not announce any specific deadline in this excerpt: the progress of the file remains linked to the next steps with official creditors.
