Koolute at the 4th Senegalese Real Estate, Housing and Construction Exhibition Conference (SENHabitat)

Koolute was fully represented at the 4th Annual Senegalese Real-estate, Housing & Construction Exhibition Conference – SENHabitat. The thematic focus was on “sustainable & affordable housing” which ties into our larger mission at Koolute, and we always want to be a part of steering these conversations.

It was great to see progress and optimism in the right direction as Prime Minister Amadou Ba stressed on key focus areas of the Plan Senegal Emergent (PSE), which include:
Eradicating slums by 2035
Developing 100,000 social houses per year to bridge the housing deficit gap estimated at 350,000 units.

Key Takeaways from the Conference

Amidst the top ideas, insights and thought leading opinions, we captured some key takeaways;
Senegal and much of francophone West Africa presents a booming opportunity for Senegal's construction and building industry experts and private sector players to build active collaborations with governments.
Dakar is already in the top 10 African cities to live in and will be in the top 15 most populous cities in Africa with over 5 million inhabitants.

What does this represent in opportunity?

• Need for 100,000 housing units
• 7 million M2 of titles to be manufactured
• 200,000 sanitary kits to be produced.
• 1 million jobs for Senegalese Workforce

From where we sit, a booming industry will require three broad areas that tech can play in; Fintech (Financial Technology), Property Technology (PropTech), and Education Technology (EdTech). What does that look like in reality? An educated workforce in terms of skills and formalized training across the design and planning, construction, architecture and housing value chains, increased need for digitization to improve access to housing and adjacent opportunities, deepened housing finance services entrenched within accessible banking and commerce structures to drive inclusion across the bottom 25% of the local population.

We find that these problems and opportunities are not peculiar to Senegal alone, but the entire continent. There’s over $7 Trillion dollars in trapped capital in land and property in Africa, and we are confident that substantial investments in infrastructure across all industrial domains will be critical to driving increased FDI investments to support major government efforts.

In numbers, here’s what currently exists:

• $1 billion joint venture with Dubai-based logistics company to build new water port
  First RER(Réseau Express Régional) train connecting Dakar city to the airport in just 45 minutes. This has been operational in Senegal since the end of 2021.
• Additional transport set to accommodate additional 115,000 passengers is being built
• Approximately $21 million to finance roads and the transportation networks within MGSBS (Mauritania, Senegal Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinee Conakry) region
• Approximately $60 million was earmarked to build public hospitals.

It speaks of progress to see Dakar’s emergence as a top city in Africa, and this event also afforded the opportunity to visit one of Senegal’s largest housing projects, Diamniadio. The event was organized by the Ministry of Urban Planning, Housing, and Public Hygiene, Republic of Senegal, in partnership with AME Trade Ltd, and Koolute is proud to have been able to take its seat at the table to channel these conversations for impact.