The costs of telecommunications services (Internet and calls) in Senegal are expected to fall soon. Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo, Secretary General of the Government announced on Thursday June 13 that Senegalese mobile telephone operators responded to the State’s call for a reduction in prices.

As a result, Sonatel, Free and Expresso will market new offers that “  will benefit consumers, especially those who purchase retail packages  ”. The date of entry into force of the new pricing will be defined following a meeting of the National Consumer Council (CNC) which will take place on Tuesday June 18, we learn.

This initiative is part of the Senegalese government’s efforts to strengthen the purchasing power of the population. The executive also announced a drop in the prices of consumer products such as bread, granulated sugar, unscented broken rice, refined oil, etc.

The reduction in prices for telecom services should encourage greater adoption and use of said services. This should help accelerate the digital transformation ambitions of the government which wants to make Senegal a benchmark in digital transformation on the continent by 2029.

As a reminder, Senegal had 22.4 million mobile telephone subscribers and 19.8 million Internet subscribers as of December 31, 2023. If the penetration rates of its two services are above 100%, the actual figures should be lower due to the multi-SIM phenomenon. In addition, the country occupied 14th place in Africa in 2023 in terms of the level of ICT development according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), with a score of 66.5 out of 100.

Source: Agency EcoFin