From Ena to the Police: the inspiring story of Commissioner Adja Coumba Ndiaye, major in Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d’Or June 30, 2026

There are decisions that change a career, sometimes a life. By choosing to leave the National School of Administration (Ena), where she had nevertheless passed the competition, to put on the uniform of the National Police, Adja Coumba Ndiaye followed a deep conviction rather than a set path. Nearly ten years later, this intuition turned into consecration: the Senegalese commissioner graduated as top of the 77th promotion of foreign police executives from the National Police School (Ensp) in Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d’Or, in France, where fourteen nationalities were represented.

“I’m very proud,” she confides soberly. Yet behind these words lies the culmination of a demanding journey. For several months, she followed training renowned for its rigor, alternating theoretical lessons, internships and application exercises. Only the climatic conditions, far removed from those of Senegal, will have somewhat complicated its adaptation. For the rest, integration took place naturally, until this final evaluation which will consecrate it as major foreign police commissioner.
This distinction crowns an already solid professional career. Joining the National Police in 2017 with the 44th promotion of police commissioners, Adja Coumba Ndiaye began as a deputy at the Grand-Yoff police station, where she worked for three years. She then joined the Parcelles Assainies police station before taking command of the Malika police station for two years, gradually confirming her management and proximity skills.

When she leaves Ena to follow her vocation!

However, nothing definitively destined the young woman to the Police. Her path seemed to lead her to another great school of Senegalese administration. Admitted to the competitive examination for the National School of Administration (Ena), in cycle B, she even began her training in the Trésor section. But a deep conviction eventually takes hold.

“It was stronger than me,” she says. Inspired by her sister, the first in the family to wear the uniform, she makes an unusual decision: resign from Ena to join the National Police. A daring bet that she has never regretted.

“There is nothing more noble than serving the population with such closeness,” she says today.
Daughter of a civil servant whose numerous assignments marked her childhood, Adja Coumba Ndiaye grew up between several cities in Senegal. From Saint-Louis, where she did her preschool, to Kaolack, then Dakar and Rufisque, her school career follows her father’s changes. After entering sixth form at the Masse Massaër Niane 1 school in Baobab, her Bfem at the Galandou Diouf high school in Mermoz and her baccalaureate at the Abdoulaye Sadji high school in Rufisque, she continued her studies at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, where she obtained a master’s degree.
A few years later, the woman who had given up a career in financial administration now registered her name on the list of honors at one of the most prestigious police schools in Europe. Proof that an assumed vocation can sometimes open the most unexpected paths.

By Salla GUEYE