Macky Sall has just announced a series of measures against the high cost of living in Senegal. Many products and services will see their prices drop.
Rents are symptomatic of the general rise in prices in Senegal: +200% since 2014, on average, in Dakar. At the time, the government had already tried to lower prices, without real success. Over the same period, the Senegalese president explained to the press, construction costs only increased by around 45%. The Head of State has just proposed eleven measures to try to help households in difficulty. Among the measures, the reduction in rents, of between 5% and 20%, depending on the amounts.
If applied, the measure could allow the inhabitants of Dakar to breathe a little… Except that there is a lack of thousands of homes in the Senegalese capital, which has nearly four million inhabitants.
But on the side of the populations, nothing is less certain: eight years ago, the National Assembly had passed the law relating to the reduction of rents not having been calculated according to the “corrected surface”. It was then a question of predicting a drop of 29%. Taking advantage of a legal vacuum, the renters had circumvented the texts and succeeded, on the contrary, in increasing the rents. The government promises, this time, decrees, as of this Wednesday.
Beyond the lower prices, Macky Sall also wants to facilitate access to housing by removing the four months deposit required. From now on, tenants arriving in accommodation will only have to pay a two-month deposit, one of which may be staggered throughout the year.
In addition to rents, President Macky Sall assures that basic products will also benefit from price reductions: rice, oil or even sugar should suffer reductions. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, prices have skyrocketed. The prices of rice, oil and sugar will drop from 350, 1 and 200 CFA francs respectively to 600, 325 and 1 CFA francs. Powdered milk, onions, potatoes and carrots are also affected, as are poultry, beef and mutton.
Finally, school supplies will also register a price drop. As for tuition fees, they will also be reduced: for college and high school, fees will be set at 3 CFA francs and a drop of 000 to 5% will be recorded for private higher education.