Senegal: new measures to mitigate cost of living crisis

Senegal will further support low-income families hit by the tough socio-economic situation. The government announced it would back more than 540,000 poor households.

The government spokesman, Oumar Guèye, said on Thursday all was done to avoid an explosion in prices of essential staples and other products.

If the government has sett up a price support scheme for wheat and abandoned some of the import taxes, many Senegalese were still forced to shrink their grocery bills.

"I used to buy five liters of oil at a maximum of 18,000 CFA francs, but now they cost nearly 27,000 CFA francs, Malick Dione, a merchant  says. The price of rice has also risen sharply and worse, rice has become unobtainable."

At the end of a cabinet meeting, the government announced its latest lever to support more than Five hundred forty thousand 540 000 low-income households . All are listed on the National single registry and will receive approximately 64 million dollars to cope with the rising cost of living. This new safety net will be launched on May 10.

The West African country is grappling with the consequences of global inflation and the disruption of international trade due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.