Twenty-five percent of shares of the Société Eiffage de la Concession de l’Autoroute de l’Avenir (SECAA SA), which manages Senegal’s first toll highway, now belongs to the state.
By Oumar Dembélé
The renegotiation which began in 2019 has come to an end.
The Minister of Infrastructure, Land Transport, Mansour Faye, announced on Tuesday 16 March the entry of the Senegalese state, up to 25 percent, or 19 billion CFA francs, in the capital of the French company.
The company operates the Autoroute de l’Avenir linking the capital Dakar to the Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD) in Diass, some forty kilometres apart.
At the same time, the state will receive a state royalty representing 2 percent of the annual SECAA turnover, with a minimum of 800 million CFA francs per year, instead of the previous 1000 CFA francs per year, the minister added.
He initialed the memorandum of understanding along with his colleagues in charge of Finance and Budget as well as Economy and Planning, in addition to the Director General of the National Agency for the Promotion of Investments and Major Works (APIX) and the General Administrator of SECAA, Gérard Sénac.
According to Mr. Faye, the new terms of the contract will allow “a particular monitoring of the investment programme, operating revenues and associated costs, in full transparency”.
In addition, the Senegalese state will benefit from the distribution of dividends for each financial year.
A shareholders’ agreement provides a framework for this provision.
With a view to sustainable and secure partnership that will allow for the best conditions for the transfer of the facility and beyond, the completion of major maintenance and repairs, the protocol provides for an extension of the concession period for five years, Faye said.
In addition, this renegotiation of the contract binding the state of Senegal to the Eiffage Company in the operation of the Autoroute de l’Avenir also seems to be a victory for the Citizen’s Collective for the Defence of the Interests of Users of the Toll Motoway, built in 2018.
It continues to denounce the tariffs charged on the country’s first toll motorway.
“They are among the most expensive in the world, and do not correspond to the level of income of the average Senegalese,” said Bachir Fofana, a spokesman for the collective.
ODL/cgd/lb/as/APA