Energy access

Senegal sets $690m against 6,471 villages still without electricity

2nd October, 2026

Senegal’s energy minister told a briefing in Dakar on 1 October that the state will invest close to 400 billion CFA francs to electrify 6,471 localities by 2029. The commitment follows a September in which Dakar lost around 200MW from a single plant failure during a heatwave.

Close to 400 billion CFA francs, around $690 million, is what Senegal says it will spend to reach 6,471 localities still without electricity by 2029, according to the state news agency APS, which reported the figure from a press briefing given by the energy minister, Diouf, in Dakar on 1 October.

Reaching every household by 2029 has been the stated goal for some time, with financing described as still to be finalised as recently as February, so the number matters mainly because it attaches a figure and a date to an ambition that previously had neither.

September gave the grid a harder test. Senelec’s chief executive said on 21 September that a fault at a Turkish floating power plant had taken roughly 200MW out of the system during a heatwave that was already driving demand up, with both failed units returned to service by 23 September and a similar incident having hit supply on 6 September.

Fuel is the other half of the problem the ministry is working on, with the minister telling Reuters on 17 September that Senegal wants to move its power plants onto domestic gas, which would reduce the exposure to imported liquid fuels that has shaped the country’s generation costs for years.

Both tracks point at the same thing. A village connection is only worth what the supply behind it can deliver, and Senegal is now spending on the connections while still proving the generation.

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