Position Senegal in the event industry with Dakar Diamniadio Sport City, a world-class sports and hotel complex. This is what the businessman Madani Tall intends to build in Diamniadio, a jewel that should allow Senegal to position itself in the event industry.
A city like Diamniadio, whose population should reach 50,000 or even 250,000 inhabitants in ten years, needs sports and leisure facilities. Based on this observation, Madani Tall, president of Envol Immobilier, decided to build in the city of emergence a sports and hotel complex of international class, including a Fifa football pitch, mini-pitches, a gymnasium a multi-purpose Olympic swimming pool, tennis courts, recreational areas, but most importantly a four-star hotel that will be managed by an international group.
On June 28, he signed the agreement to allocate a six-hectare property tax base with Seydou Sy Sall, the delegate general for the urban centers of Diamniadio and Lac Rose. “The idea of this sports complex is to provide Senegal with a sports infrastructure worthy of the name to accompany the organization of the Youth Olympic Games in 2022,” said Madani Tall. Work will start “as early as July” this year and will last 24 months. “The complex will open in July 2021. We will have a full year of running-in facilities before the start of JO-j,” he promises.
This complex will be “a choice among others” that can accommodate the delegations and some sports competitions. But, beyond the july-2022, it responds to a “real need” in Senegal for this type of infrastructure. The ambition is also to bring, with the help of some major sports and event agencies, football clubs, basketball clubs or international athletes to do their preparation courses in Dakar; in short, to position Senegal as a real tourist, sport and leisure destination. The overall cost of the project is estimated at CFAF 30 billion and it will generate at least 250 direct jobs. The promoter will start work on own funds, up to 7.5 billion FCFA, or 25%, and the rest, or 22.5 billion, on bank financing.
“We are in discussion with the Atlantic Bank, the West African Development Bank (Boad) and the Arab Bank for Economic Development of Africa (Badea) based in Khartoum, Sudan, who have agreed to accompany us so that all funding will be completed by October this year, “Tall said.
For Seydou Sy Sall, the interest of this project lies in being a direct private investment; this after a first phase where most of the structuring infrastructures were carried out by the State. “It shows that the model we are working on is starting to pay off,” he says. The general delegate and the promoter insisted on the “complementarity” of this complex with the Dakar Arena and the new Olympic stadium, whose work will soon be launched by the head of state. “We thought about strengthening the supply without competing with the existing infrastructure,” says Madani Tall, while for Mr. Sall, it will allow “better exploitation” of the Dakar Arena.
Source: dakaractu.com