DAKAR: Unlike many of its neighbours, Senegal does not have large oil reserves or huge deposits of gold or minerals, but the semi-arid former French colony is fast becoming the economic success story of West Africa.
In a region notorious for brutal civil wars and coups, Senegal’s major attraction has been its stability. Its lack of natural resources has probably been something of a bizarre blessing as gems and gold often fuel the area’s conflicts.
While a three-year-old rebellion has convulsed Ivory Coast, one of the region’s heavyweights, Senegal’s economy has bounded ahead with annual growth of more than 6 per cent.
But President Abdoulaye Wade, who won power in peaceful elections in 2000, knows he must to do more to entice investors.
His government recently cut corporate tax to 25 per cent from 33 per cent, hoping to end dependence on fishing and groundnuts, which are vulnerable to weather changes and commodity prices.
The aim is to attract money into luxury tourism, agri-business and the service sector.
Stubborn obstacles to investment remain: corruption, poor roads and persistent power cuts that can last several hours. Wade has set up a presidential council for investment to tackle these issues.
With India as an example, Senegal hopes that good telecoms and low wages can turn its capital Dakar into a hub for call centres and technology services in the French-speaking world. Telecoms operator Sonatel has forged ahead since France Telecom started to build a controlling stake in 1997.
Today, Senegal has one of Africa’s most powerful Internet networks of 400 megabits per second and more than one million telecoms clients, or a tenth of the population.—Reuters
