500,000 homes and four new hospitals: the government’s big social bet September 8, 2026

In his General Policy Declaration (DPG), presented this Tuesday, September 8 before the National Assembly, Prime Minister Ahmadou Al Aminou Lô also gave an important place to sectors which directly affect the living conditions of populations: housing, health and the production of medicines..

500,000 housing units by 2035

The first major program concerns access to housing and urban renewal. The stated objective is ambitious: to reach 500,000 housing units by 2035.

This policy comes in a context marked by a deficit estimated at 300,000 units, almost half of which is concentrated in the Dakar region. Beyond the construction of housing, the program also intends to respond to the challenges linked to rapid urbanization and the transformation of urban spaces.

Housing is thus presented as a major social issue, but also as a sector capable of stimulating economic activity and generating jobs.

Four new regional hospitals

Health constitutes the second major axis of this social component. The government is planning a regional hospital program accompanied by an upgrade of technical platforms, with the ambition of gradually bringing Senegal closer to international standards in terms of access to care.

The diagnosis made in the DPG highlights the current inadequacies of the hospital system. The country has approximately one general hospital bed for nearly 2,600 inhabitants and one intensive care bed for 147,000 inhabitants.

Faced with this situation, the construction of four new level 3 regional hospitals has been made a strategic priority. These establishments, with a capacity of 350 beds each, must be located in Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor, Mbour and Kaolack.

The government plans to use large public-private partnerships to build these infrastructures, which should constitute the first large-scale PPPs in the health sector.

Towards pharmaceutical sovereignty

The third project concerns pharmaceutical sovereignty. The government aims to develop a real pharmaceutical cluster in order to significantly increase local production of medicines.

The announced objective is to increase the share of local production from 15% to 50% by 2035, in order to reduce the country’s dependence on imports and strengthen its capacity to meet its health needs.

Through these three programs, outlined by Prime Minister Ahmadou Al Aminou Lô in his General Policy Declaration, the government intends to make catalytic projects an instrument for concrete improvement in the daily lives of Senegalese people.

Access to decent housing, the strengthening of hospital provision and the development of local production of medicines thus appear as three dimensions of the same ambition: to make economic transformation a direct lever for social progress.

CG DIOP