Senegal President Macky Sall is seeking to overhaul government structure in a move expected shift administration to a more presidential system.
The program of ambitious reforms will see the post of prime minister scrapped.
Making the announcement on Saturday, Senegal PM Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne said the aim is to bring the administration closer to the people to speed up reforms so they had more impact.
Senegal has long considered to a democratic model in Africa.
In the proposed structure, Dionne, who had just been reappointed to the role, will take on the post of secretary general of the Republic.
“The idea is to reduce the bottlenecks so that information can be circulated more easily,” and to allow the reforms to have “more impact on the people”, Dionne said.
Sall, 57, took office this week for his second term as president after comfortably winning re-election.
He garnered 58 percent of the vote, well clear of former prime minister Idrissa Seck on 20 percent with the rest of the pack left trailing, to win easily in a single round of voting on February 24.
For his second term in office, Sall has said he wants to help young people find training and jobs and to promote “the entrepreneurial spirit and new technologies”.
He has also promised to commit to “public policies favouring women and girls”, ensure “decent housing” for all and “safeguard the environment”.
Sall’s re-election also promises a major public works initiative including a new international airport, a new town outside Dakar and a regional fast trains system.
A self-proclaimed social liberal — despite a flirtation with Maoism in his youth — Sall has described, in his autobiography published last November, a slow, steady rise from a modest background all the way to the top, despite a stint in the political wilderness.
But critics argue that such single-mindedness has made Sall willing to bend the rules to get what he wants.
