The government of Japan will provide to Senegal a concessional loan of FCFA41 billion to support its Universal Health Cover program (CMU) lanched in 2013. This was revealed following a meeting between Senegal’s Presdient Macky Sall and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference for African Development VI (TICAV VI) held in Nairobi, last month.

The loan from Tokyo will help improve access to health care for the most vulnerable populations. “We intend to improve populations’ access to quality health care, at affordable cost. Japan’s help will help us overcome challenges related to geographic and financial inaccessibility to health centres,” said Awa Marie Coll Seck, Senegal’s Minister of Health and Social Action. It will also help “fix social inequalities in hospitals and insure equity and quality treatments,” she added.

CMU is one of the key components in President Sall’s social policy. It aims to provide workers from the informal sector, without social cover, a health cover.

Alain Okpeitcha