New Senegalese president elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye made his first official visit out of the country this Thursday 18th April to Mauritania just 16 days after his oath of office. President Faye laid his priority in solidifying a good relationship with his neighbors. In Nouakchott, the 44 year old and his counterpart President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani based their discussion on how to start production of oil and gas that is supposed to start pumping out from the gas field on their common border later this year.
Senegal and Mauritania share the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) liquefied natural gas field on their maritime border, jointly developed by British energy giant “BP”, the American company “Kosmos Energy”, the Mauritanian hydrocarbons company “SMH” and the Senegalese state-owned “Petrosen”. The 5th Senegalese president has serious ambitions of ameliorating the Senegalese economy.
In the same vein, he has just published a decree asking all French owned companies in the country to henceforth start paying their taxes in the Senegalese treasury instead of paying in France like they did in the past years.
President Diomaye Faye will be coming back to his country Friday 19th April. His next visit will take him to Gambia, another neighbor. President Adama Barrow who was the first head of state to send him congratulation massages after his election in to office as head of state 24th of march will be very pleased to welcome him.
Born on the 25th Mars 1980 in Ndiaganiao, Faye studied law in the Cheikh-Anta-Diop university of Dakar before going to study taxation in the Senegalese school of administration.
African presidents that we have seen in the past will always rush to France for their first official visit, especially those of the French speaking African countries. But Bassirou Diomaye Faye putting his African neighbors first shows that the new generation of African president want to do things a different way.