Madar (Nouakchott) - Prime Minister Mokhtar Ould Djay will present his government's programme to the National Assembly on Saturday morning, November 7, 2026, and commit the government's responsibility for it under Article 42 of the Constitution, with MPs due to debate and vote on the programme on Monday, November 9, according to a decision of the National Assembly's Conference of Presidents reported by the Mauritanian News Agency (AMI).
The presentation comes about four weeks after the formation of the new government, which held its first meeting at the presidential palace on October 14, following the resignation of the previous government and Ould Djay's reappointment to form a new one. Twenty ministers kept their posts, while ten left the cabinet.
The schedule and the procedure
According to AMI, the Conference of Presidents met on Thursday, November 5, chaired by the National Assembly's first vice-president, Sidney Sokhona, and attended for the government by the Minister of Culture, Arts, Communication and Relations with Parliament and government spokesman, Mohamed Ould Boubana. It scheduled two plenary sessions: the first at 10 a.m. on Saturday for the presentation of the programme and the commitment of the government's responsibility, and the second at the same time on Monday for its debate and vote.
By a majority of members present, the Conference set the total time for the debate on the programme at seven hours and 20 minutes. In January 2026, it had allotted eight hours and 48 minutes to the debate on the Prime Minister's report on the government's record for 2025.
At the same meeting, the Conference referred the 2027 finance bill to the Finance Committee for in-depth study and scheduled a plenary session to debate and vote on it on Monday, December 28, 2026, at 10 a.m.
What came before
The Prime Minister briefed the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, November 4, on the broad lines of the government's general policy statement that he intends to deliver to the National Assembly, without the official cabinet communique disclosing its content.
Two days earlier, Ould Djay met the leaders and representatives of the majority parties and the heads of their parliamentary groups to consult on preparing the general policy statement, under Articles 42 and 76 of the Constitution, and said the views exchanged would be taken into account in drafting it.
In January 2026, the Prime Minister told the National Assembly that the government had delivered 92% of the commitments it made to Parliament: of 302 planned activities, 224 were fully carried out and 54 partially, while 24 commitments were not met for what he described as technical or circumstantial reasons.
The files on the table
The content of the programme the Prime Minister will present has not yet been made public, but the presentation comes against an economic and social backdrop drawn by recent official figures.
Last January, Ould Djay told Parliament that the government had brought inflation down to 1.3% through November 2025. However, the monthly bulletin of the National Agency for Statistics and Demographic and Economic Analysis (ANSADE) showed annual inflation at 9.3% in September 2026, with food prices up 12.5% in a year, fish up 44.8% and meat up 23.7%.
In response to this acceleration, the Central Bank of Mauritania raised its policy rate from 6.75% to 7.25% and banks' reserve requirement from 8% to 15%, according to the Monetary Policy Committee's statement. This coincides with a cash shortage at banks that, according to the Sahara Medias website citing a source, has made large withdrawals difficult for several weeks.
On fuel, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Development, Mohamedou Ahmedou M'Haimid, told a press conference on the evening of Wednesday, November 4, that any cut in prices remains tied to international developments, pointing to government measures to protect purchasing power, with particular attention to low-income households.
On the other hand, the final results of the permanent survey on household living conditions show monetary poverty falling from 28.2% in 2019 to 25.7% in 2025, and extreme poverty from 12.8% to 11.2%, according to the same minister on November 2.
On governance, the Council of Ministers adopted on November 4 an implementing decree for the Public Procurement Code, creating a regulatory authority and requiring those involved in public contracts to declare their assets and interests. On Thursday evening, November 5, at a meeting with officials and notables of Nouakchott South, President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani reaffirmed his commitment to rationalise the country's resources and manage them with integrity and transparency, free of corruption, AMI reported.
On public services, the president launched on Thursday the second phase of the Nouakchott emergency development programme, worth about 115 billion old ouguiyas, following consultations in the regions on the second phase of the emergency programme for local development. The draft 2027 budget, for its part, forecasts 5% growth and inflation of around 3.3%, with revenue of 152.11 billion new ouguiyas, according to the Finance Minister.
MPs will vote on the government's programme on Monday, November 9, while the draft 2027 budget remains before the Finance Committee until its plenary session on December 28.
