Before you start

A passport, or your carte d'identité d'étranger once you hold it
A physical presence at an agency — identification is done in person
An unlocked handset; check eSIM support with *#06# before relying on it
The line in YOUR name if a mobile-money wallet will sit on it

Step-by-step

1
Buy at an operator agency
Orange, Yas and Expresso all have agencies in Touba and in Mbacké. A SIM that already works when you buy it has been registered to somebody else, and in a city where mobile money carries rent, wages and remittances that is not a small problem.
In personWho: YouMinutesA few hundred XOF
2
Get identified in your own name
The agent records your passport or residence card against the line. The ARTP restricted unidentified numbers from 18 March 2025 and suspended them outright on 31 March 2025, after earlier campaigns that deactivated millions of lines. The regulator also caps how many SIMs one subscriber may hold — three is the widely reported figure.
In personWho: YouMinutesFree
3
Choose for coverage, not for a city data price
In the Baol the question is which network works on the road to Diourbel, Bambey and Dakar and in the villages you will visit, not which has the cheapest urban bundle. Orange, through Sonatel, has the broadest reach outside the capital and the deepest money-agent network. Ask locally rather than comparing tariffs from a Dakar article.
In personWho: YouSame dayNothing to compare
4
Expect the Magal to break the network
Several million people arriving in one city for one week overwhelms capacity every year regardless of what operators deploy. Assume calls will not connect and data will crawl in that window, agree in advance where and when you will meet people, and carry cash — mobile money needs a signal.
Mobile appWho: YouAnnually, around 18 SafarFree to plan around
5
Sort home internet realistically
Fibre coverage thins sharply outside the Dakar peninsula. In Touba a 4G router is the practical answer for most households, so check the signal at the actual address before you sign a lease — not at the agency, not at a neighbour's, at the address.
OnlineWho: YouDaysRouter plus a data plan

Documents you’ll need

Passport, or the carte d'identité d'étranger
An unlocked handset
Nothing else

Things most newcomers don’t know

Senegal actually enforced its SIM identification; Côte d'Ivoire did not.

The ARTP suspended unidentified lines on 31 March 2025 after restricting them from 18 March, following earlier campaigns that cut millions of numbers. Anyone applying an Abidjan heuristic, where identification campaigns are older and no active purge is running, will underrate the risk of an informally acquired SIM here.

Source: ARTP; Senegalese press, March 2025

Free Sénégal is now Yas, and both names remain in circulation.

The rebrand landed in 2025 and shop signage, contracts and half the internet still say Free. Same operator. There is no fourth network.

Source: ARTP market reporting

In Touba the line and the wallet are the same asset.

Mobile money is bound to the SIM, and in a city where wages, rent, wholesale payments and remittances from Europe all move through wallets, a line registered to a friend or a landlord means your money sits inside somebody else's identity. This is the most expensive shortcut available on day one.

Source: Operator KYC rules under ARTP identification requirements

Plan the Magal week offline.

Network congestion during the pilgrimage is a certainty, not a risk. Fix meeting points and times in advance, keep cash, and do not schedule anything that depends on a data connection into that week.

Source: Annual Magal reporting