{"id":6545,"date":"2026-06-20T16:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mezghena.org\/?p=6545"},"modified":"2026-06-20T16:15:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:15:52","slug":"fatf-saturday-banking-major-projects-the-state-wants-to-reassure-markets-without-freeing-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mezghena.org\/index.php\/en\/2026\/06\/20\/fatf-saturday-banking-major-projects-the-state-wants-to-reassure-markets-without-freeing-society\/","title":{"rendered":"FATF, Saturday banking, major projects: the state wants to reassure markets without freeing society"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Algeria\u2019s removal from the FATF grey list, the announced opening of banks on Saturdays, and official communication around Sonelgaz, Gara Djebilet and Naftal in Niger all stage the same political scene: the state wants to display economic normalization. But normalization is not transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact matters. On 19 June 2026, Algeria was removed from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force. On paper, this is positive. A country under enhanced monitoring for anti-money-laundering, counter-terrorism financing and counter-proliferation rules carries a costly stigma. It worries correspondent banks, complicates transactions, increases compliance burdens and signals institutional weakness. Leaving that list is better than remaining on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a country is not reformed by communiqu\u00e9. Removal from the grey list confirms targeted institutional progress, not a general conversion to transparency. It suggests that laws, procedures and monitoring mechanisms have sufficiently answered FATF expectations. It does not prove that the real economy has been freed from its locks: opaque land access, banking bureaucracy, unequal credit, network privileges and the confusion between economic decision-making and administrative supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order requiring banks to provide Saturday service from 10 July follows the same logic: improving the visible access to a service without yet touching the core of the problem. Opening counters for one more day can help employees, traders, retirees, families and small businesses. But Algeria\u2019s banking problem is not mainly about opening hours. It is about quality of service, real digitalization, trust, productive credit, speed, clarity and equal treatment of files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another register, Sonelgaz says it is adding more than 1,850 MW to face summer consumption peaks. This is significant in a country exposed to heat, urban expansion, household equipment and industrial needs. Yet more capacity remains a defensive answer if it is not matched by energy efficiency, intelligible pricing, network modernization and serious solar integration. Producing more is necessary. It is not a complete policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gara Djebilet belongs to the same national dramaturgy: huge promise, ministerial coordination, follow-up meetings, industrial sovereignty rhetoric. The mine can be structuring. It can support a steel base, open up territories, create value chains and reduce certain dependencies. But Algeria\u2019s economic history is full of monumental projects turned into administrative showcases. The issue is not to announce the exploitation of a deposit. The issue is to prove command of the whole chain: extraction, transport, transformation, training, maintenance, local subcontracting, environment, profitability and exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naftal\u2019s mission in Niger opens a regional window. Cooperation with Sonidep on fuel infrastructure, LPG, bitumen and gas cylinders can become useful Sahelian projection. Algeria cannot speak of strategic depth to the south without building concrete economic instruments. Again, everything will depend on the gap between official visit and real contracting, between protocol and investment, between the delegation photo and a durable logistics network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sequence reveals a deep tension in the Algerian economy. The state wants to reassure international financial institutions, show that it adapts its banks, strengthens energy, activates mines and moves toward the Sahel. It wants to appear as a strategic state. Too often, however, it remains an administrative state, jealous of control and convinced that coordination meetings can replace a productive ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country needs compliance, banks open to citizens, available electricity, exploited mines and public companies active in Niger. Above all, it needs an economy in which citizens, SMEs, engineers, farmers, local authorities, diasporas and workers are not reduced to passive beneficiaries of top-down announcements. Economic sovereignty is not decreed. It is built through reliable institutions, transparent information, productive capacity, commercial justice and public accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removal from the grey list can be a foothold. It will become a turning point only if it opens a deeper reform cycle: less arbitrariness, more rules, less rent, more production, less fa\u00e7ade, more real economic society. Without that, the country will simply have gained a favorable mark in international compliance circuits while the national economy continues to operate under glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yaqoub Mellali<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sources utilis\u00e9es<\/h2>\n\n\n