Touba, Senegal's holy city with big economic clout
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00:00This new 4,000-square-meter supermarket has proved quite the hit in Senegal's holy city.
00:07More than a million people live in Touba, a previously underserved market.
00:14The overall investment to date is 4 billion CFA francs, that's about 6 million euros.
00:22Touba provides a real opportunity, which is the reason why the Lekoufi business chose
00:27to invest.
00:32With the great annual pilgrimage to the city underway, the supermarket has seen record
00:36profits.
00:37There is a real need for this kind of thing in Touba, a place where you can find everything
00:42you need, especially during the great pilgrimage.
00:46Touba lies in the most populated administrative region in Senegal.
00:50It is connected to the capital, Dakar, by a long motorway.
00:55Businessmen aim to create a low-tax special economic zone by this side of the road.
01:001.6 kilometers in length all the way to Touba.
01:07Their aim is to make Touba the new industrial heartland of Senegal.
01:11The plan is to create a dry port, an industrial space.
01:15We need to decentralize industry from Dakar because of all the traffic along the road
01:19and all the problems that it causes.
01:25Touba faces a number of major infrastructure issues including limited water access, a problem
01:31exacerbated during the annual pilgrimage.
01:34In a visit to the city on Monday, President Jomai Faye promised to find solutions.