Friction in public contracting in West Africa often leads to complex reputational and financial disputes when local regulatory frameworks clash with the management of international companies. The exchange of accusations between the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Livestock of Senegal and the Spanish company Intermaq 2012 SL has reached its highest tension point following televised statements by Minister Mabouba Diagne on the Télé Futurs Medias (TFM) network. The Madrid-based firm, awarded an ambitious agricultural modernization plan, has labeled the government representative’s claims as false and demands an immediate public retraction in light of what it considers a serious harm to its corporate reputation in global markets. The conflict revolves around the degree of execution and capital transfers of contract T0520/22, a bilateral agreement signed in March 2022 that includes the supply of advanced agricultural equipment and the construction of 120 strategic storage warehouses in Senegalese territory. Minister Diagne raised alarms in financial circles by declaring that the Spanish company had already received approximately 99 million euros in exchange for deliveries valued at only 17 billion CFA francs. This alleged cash flow asymmetry has been drastically rebutted by the company’s management in an official statement signed by its general manager, Fernando Marco Blanco. The accounting balances presented by Intermaq show a radically opposite financial scenario to that reported by the Senegalese Executive. The corporation claims that the total invoicing issued to date amounts to only 25 million euros, of which it has effectively collected only 15 million euros. According to its account statements, the Ministry of Agriculture itself has an accumulated overdraft with the supplier of nearly 10 million euros. This outstanding debt includes a systematically unpaid invoice since December 2024, along with a retained balance unilaterally on machinery already physically in destination or delivered. A bureaucratic and customs labyrinth at the port of Dakar paralyzes the project, exposing the structural failures of customs administration at the Autonomous Port of Dakar terminal. In the face of Minister Diagne’s threat to forcibly requisition the blocked containers to distribute them among local agricultural cooperatives, Intermaq clarifies that the logistical collapse is directly due to the ministry’s inability to issue the official tax exemption titles provided for in the contractual annexes. This institutional inaction has forced the Spanish company to bear an additional financial cost exceeding 450 million CFA francs in surcharges for bonds and port storage. To unblock part of the rolled cargo, the firm was forced to unilaterally negotiate a contingency exemption under the Exceptional Temporary Admissions regime with the customs authorities. Of the 21 units of marine transport dispatched from Spanish ports, the firm has managed to transfer 17 containers to the final assembly plants. Intermaq’s technical management certifies that the chapter on the supply of agricultural machinery is 70% executed in terms of set objectives and adds that the fulfillment of delivery milestones would have reached 100% had it not been for the continuous contractual breaches attributable to the very national ministry. Efforts for arbitration and offers for rate restructuring by the supplier have also not received official channels. Intermaq details a prolonged administrative silence regarding multiple communications sent since June 2024, a lack of dialogue that led to a direct letter being sent to the President of the Republic of Senegal in February 2026 to alert about the operational blockade. The only notification sent by Diagne’s team dates back to September 2025, demanding a unilateral 10% reduction in the cost of the warehouses and 5% on the spare parts batches. Although Intermaq accepted an exceptional discount on the infrastructures that involved a net effort of 1.8 million euros (1.18 billion CFA francs) —formally notified in September and ratified in December 2025—, the ministry has kept payments frozen. The dispute is now approaching the judicial arena. General manager Fernando Marco Blanco has warned that any attempt at forced seizure would violate international law and property titles of the goods, opening a scenario of litigation with severe financial consequences for the Senegalese state. Intermaq demands the immediate regularization of the supplementary agreement signed in May 2025, the issuance of customs permits, and the settlement of overdue amounts. Otherwise, the firm will activate available legal resources before the courts of Dakar and Madrid to safeguard its commercial rights against the reputational impact arising from the ministerial statements.
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