07 April 2022

The president of Senegal, Macky Sall, has instructed the minister of digital economy and telecommunications to improve mobile network coverage across the country.

He stressed “the urgency of redeployment and strengthening the mechanisms of intervention of the development fund of universal telecommunications service (FDSUT), an instrument of impetus, whose institutional evaluation of activities remains a priority.

According to the latest data on the Senegalese telecom market published by the Telecommunications and Posts Regulatory Authority (ARTP), there were 15,418,058 Internet subscribers. That is a penetration rate of 92.29%. However, the data of the watchdog remains silent on the coverage rate of telecom services in the country.

The penetration rate is calculated by dividing the total number of SIMs - many individuals living in urban areas hold several SIM cards because they subscribe to several telecom operators - by the total number of inhabitants estimated at 16,705,608 in 2020 by the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD). This suggests that some regions of the country are still poorly covered by telecom networks.

For Senegal, which is accelerating the digitisation of its public services and the digital transformation of several strategic sectors such as health and education, it is crucial that telecom services, especially Internet and mobile payments, be accessible even in the most remote areas of the country. The President of the Republic believes that this is the only way for all Senegalese to fully participate in the digital society promoted by the Senegal Emerging Plan.