Senegal eyes Bitcoin mining as it restructures its debt

Senegal has a debt problem and an electricity problem. Interest in Bitcoin mining is now growing in the country, and the pitch is simple: turn power nobody is using into dollars at a moment when dollars are exactly what the government needs. The timing is not subtle. Dakar is in the middle of renegotiating its external debt, and a Bitcoin mining pilot cleared by the Prime Minister’s Office lands squarely inside that process. A pilot project meets a debt crunch The Prime Minister’s Office approved a Bitcoin mining pilot on or around September 14, 2026. The stated goal is to use stranded renewable energy to support rural electrification. Bitcoin miners act as a buyer of last resort for surplus power. They run specialized computers that secure the Bitcoin network, and they earn newly issued Bitcoin in return, which can be sold for hard currency. Informal discussions on October 12, 2026, pointed to a link between rising Bitcoin mining interest in Senegal and the country’s debt restructuring push. The theme was converting idle power into dollar revenue. No mining operators have been publicly named. No capacity figures have been disclosed either, and the only confirmed development so far...