CNT: Minister Sanou’s shocking and embarrassing confession

Over the past week, transition financiers and members of the National Transitional Council debated a revised draft budget for 2024.
Alfousseini Sanou will shed light on the difficulties the World Bank has recently announced in raising funds.

To give context, the tenant of the financial hotel will explain that within the framework of improving energy supply, an agreement has been reached to supply energy to Mali 60
The facility will provide an immediate grant of US$1 million and will allow EDM to meet its needs for the purchase of fuel or energy from the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS) countries. The facility is also intended to support other photovoltaic infrastructure construction projects in Mali to change the energy structure.
Sanou said Mali’s finances were facing huge difficulties and the $60 million in funding promised by the World Bank had not materialized. The withdrawal was all the more significant because the agreement had damaged relations between the transitional authorities and their local and external sovereign supporters.

And supports this: “

The conditions imposed by the World Bank (WB) are not favorable to our country. We have reached an agreement with Niger, which has agreed to sell us oil at a lower price. However, the World Bank wants to purchase from OMVH countries (countries irrigated by the irrigation system).
Sengal River), to which Niger does not belong.

To make matters worse, the agency asked Mali to reduce wages and, in particular, lay off employees.

It is therefore clear that the energy sovereignty of the AES is being tested, while many consider the energy crisis to be a fiasco for the current powers. Minister Sanou could therefore choose a partner that is neither the World Bank nor the IMF, and that could lend money without conditions at preferential rates, to Mali’s disadvantage. And with good reason: some institutions and countries will not cooperate with an unelected state as long as the transition does not end with the “slight postponement” of the announced presidential elections.

At the regional level, restrictions on funding requirements or repayment deadlines have repeatedly appeared. It would be better to ask economic and financial experts who are capable of bringing measures between these partners and Mali. Another option, according to the minister’s admission, could well help him “bypass” the Bretton Woods institutions, while we even hinder Mali’s file at the IMF board.

Unless the Malian Minister of Economy and Finance chooses the BRICS alternative – which increasingly appeals to Colonel Assimi Gota to respect “economic sovereignty”. Until then, we are waiting to see if Alfuseni Sanou will be reappointed or if, against the backdrop of the shadow of a government reshuffle, he will be as rash as we believe he will be as Prime Minister.
Drissa Keita