Senegal - Jobs, Economic Transformation and Recovery Program-for-Results Project : Additional Financing

Overview & Synopsis

The objective of the Additional Financing of the Jobs, Economic Transformation and Recovery Program-for-Results Project is to improve the competitiveness of selected value chains, MSMEs capabilities, and private sector investment in Senegal. Senegal has great potential due to its young, dynamic population, natural resources, strategic location, and culture of democracy. However, the challenge lies in reducing poverty sustainably by creating over 300,000 jobs annually, a figure that could rise to 427,000 by 2030 and 500,000 by 2050. Currently, only an estimated 30,000 formal jobs are created for the youth entering the labor market each year.3 More jobs can be created sustainably only through a formal and growing private sector. The PACE program is a national flagship, long-term development program to achieve structural transformation of the economy. The program was launched to support businesses in their recovery from the pandemic in 2021. It aims to support economic growth, industrialization, and job creation. The program has three subprograms : (i) reinforcing the competitiveness of value chains4 with growth and job creation potential that aims to strengthen priority value chains through better understanding of bottlenecks and the reforms to be implemented; (ii) accelerating the development of the private sector that seeks to improve access by Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to finance and the formalization of economic actors and provide support to the private sector to upgrade their technology use and access more markets; and (iii) promoting private investment that aims to attract new financing and develop transformative projects, particularly through the promotion of PPPs. The program PACE is being scaled up and extended to deliver on the new GoS ambitions, including strengthening the support to SMEs, and the investment climate and industrialization reforms.