The Bureau de mise à niveau des entreprises du Sénégal (BMN) is working on the development of a national strategy for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), with a view to making targeted Senegalese products more competitive, said its director general, Ibrahima Diouf. 

 
"We need equipped markets, appropriate offers and in line with expectations because, we are in a world of competition that will be exacerbated in 2021 with the entry into force for 90% of the products of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)", said Mr. Diouf. 
 
He was speaking on Saturday afternoon at the closing of a six-day training session of Senegalese consultants and consulting firms on the "methodology and tools of upgrading" organized by the BMN. The session brought together some 30 participants from various sectors. 
 
"We are working on the national strategy and the upgrade would be a central part of this national afCFTA strategy. In this sense, you are called for more intervention," said Ibrahima Diouf. 
 
In fact, he stressed, "we considered it necessary to strengthen the capacities of the players in this consulting market but also to reach agreement on the most relevant tools to allow our companies to benefit from it and to be more resilient to the inevitable arrival of products and business services from all over the continent''. 
 
"All this dictates a conduct that is to be always on standby so that we are not surprised because, the industrialists have fears of seeing the industrial fabric crumble," argued Mr. Diouf. 
 
However, he added, "it is up to us to reassure them through serious, thorough work, to tell them that you have tools to deal with all these threats on the horizon." 
 
For him, having in front of a market of nearly two billion consumers is an advantage. 
 
"You just have to be creative, invent so that you can take your share of this market. We must think beyond the domestic consulting market and think of those of UEMOA, ECOWAS," suggested Mr. Diouf. 
 
In this regard, he noted, "we need to renew knowledge to improve approaches and we will do this together in the coming months and years." 
 
"The national strategy relies heavily on upgrading companies. When we talk about liberalization, there are 90 products that will be affected by immediate liberalization. In relation to this, we need to see where Senegal has advantages," he explained. 
 
In this regard, says Mr Diouf, a national strategy must be put in place, that is to say, to strengthen the competitiveness of these companies, equipped them so that they can cope. 
 
According to him, this strategy will rest the contribution of the upgrade in terms of programs and results to be achieved for this national strategy of the AfCFTA.