2 houses, 2 second hand cars, 2 bank accounts: Check out assets of Senegal's president-elect, Faye

The election victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senegal's president-elect is regarded as a sign of good things to come for the West African country.

The 44-year-old was declared the winner of the election held on March 24 and will take office in April.

Faye's extraordinary rise caps a rollercoaster period in Senegalese politics that many didn't expect. He has risen from a tax officer to the main opposition candidate and winner of the polls after he was barely known a year ago.

After spending about 11 months in jail alongside ally and kingmaker Ousmane Sonko, he has arguably calved a path for himself in politics.

Two days before the elections (March 22, 2024), Diomaye Faye publicly published his full assets on his official Facebook page and challenged the other 18 contenders to do the same.

None took the challenge at the time of filing this report.

The document revealed showed he had built two houses when he was in public service and owned two cars, all secondhand.

He also operated two bank accounts and lived in a house that he built himself. The document also confirmed that he was into farming and his main debt was to a friend who he had taken a loan from to invest in his farm, GhanaWeb said.

He has been hailed on social media for being transparent before he replaces the outgoing president Macky Sall.

Faye during his acceptance speech said gas, oil, fishing and defense deals must all be renegotiated to better serve the Senegalese people.

He said he is ushering in an era of "sovereignty" and "rupture" as opposed to more of the same, he told voters, and that is especially true of ties to France.

Senegal's president-elect says he will drop the much-criticized CFA franc currency, which is pegged to the euro and backed by former colonial power France. He wants to replace it with a new Senegalese, or regional West African, currency, although this will not be easy, BBC wrote.

See the French and English translation of his declaration form below:




Here are key facts about Senegal's next president

a. He was released from jail on March 16 along with Sonko.

b. Faye and Sonko are leaders of the Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l'Ethique et la Fraternité (Pastef), a party dissolved in July 2023.

c. He had spent 335 days in pre-trial detention for "contempt of court" and "calling for insurrection" among other charges.

d. He celebrated his 44th birthday on March 25, 2024, the day he was announced winner of the vote.

e. In 2014, at the age of 34, Faye, an alumnus of the Ecole Nationale de l'Administration (ENA), made his mark during the meetings that led to the creation of Pastef.

f. He would go on to become one of the ideologues and designers of Sonko's program for his presidential candidacy in 2019. It was a stroke of genius: In his first election, the Pastef leader garnered almost 16% of the vote and came third, a Le Monde profile noted.

g. President Macky Sall and the ruling party candidate, Amadou Ba, and other opponents have since congratulated him for victory.

h. He becomes the 5th president of Senegal, one of Africa's most stable democracies. Reputed to not have had a military intervention since independence.

i. Diomaye Faye has two wives, which development has attracted a lot of reactions on social media.

In his victory speech posted on social media, he outlined four immediate priorities.

"In view of the emergencies that confront us and the hope placed in us, we are working relentlessly, diligently and methodically around priority projects:

1- National reconciliation and the reconstruction of the foundations of our living together;

2- The rebuilding of institutions

3- Significant reduction in the cost of living to alleviate the burdens of daily life;

4- National inclusive sectoral consultations on the evaluation and relaunch of public policies.

"We will walk together, act together and succeed together! Long live Senegal; Long live the Republic; Long live Africa," he stated.