Senegal Secures €300 Million For Airport Development
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Aeroport International Blaise Diagne (AIBD), the joint operator of Senegal’s Blaise Diagne International airport, has secured an estimated €300 million (US$327 million) in credit to support the ongoing expansion of the airport.
The project will increase Blaise Diagne airport’s annual passenger capacity by 40% from the current 3 million to more than 5 million. It also entails constructing a cargo terminal.
The financing will also support the renovation of Senegal’s regional airports under the ongoing regional airport reconstruction programme (PRAS).
Of the total, €100 million was sourced from asset manager Ninety One and the UK’s Standard Chartered Bank, while €200 million was contributed by a consortium of banks.
Blaise Diagne airport is located 43km east of the centre of the capital Dakar and opened in December 2017. It is operated by a group of AIBD and Turkey’s Limak and Summa.
According to Ninety One, Senegal’s location at the westernmost point of Africa and its proximity to Europe and the US positions it as a gateway to the continent.
The government wants to turn Senegal into the leading aviation hub in West Africa, with a traffic of 10 million passengers a year by 2035.
“The intra-African aviation sector remains fragmented and investment into critical infrastructure such as AIBD helps facilitate growth beyond tourism and into other sectors, facilitating inter-African trade,” said Reabetswe Kungwane, an investment specialist at Ninety One.
The PRAS initiative is divided into two phases. PRAS 1 involves the rehabilitation of the airports of Saint Louis, Ourossogui-Matam in the northwestern region of Matam, Ziguinchor in the southwest, and Tambacounda and Kedougou in the southeast.
PRAS 2 includes the airports of Kolda in the south, Podor in the north on the border with Mauritania, Linguere in the northwest, Bakel in the southeastern region of Tambacounda, Cap Skirring in the Ziguinchor region on the border with Guinea-Bissau, Simenti in the southeast, Sedhiou in the southwest and Kaolack in westcentral Senegal.
According to a late January Facebook post by the Ministry of Air Transport and Airport Infrastructure Development, Kedougou airport has been rehabilitated and inaugurated and the Saint Louis airport commissioned, while Ziguinchor airport is expected to be commissioned soon. Ourossogui-Matam and Kolda airports are planned to follow next.
PRAS 1 is being undertaken by Transcon, which was appointed as the general contractor for the renovation of five regional airports in November 2017. It says it is delivering the projects using modular solutions.
Estimated to cost US$176 million, PRAS 1 is being co-financed by Czech Export Bank and Komercni Banka and supported by the Czech Export Guarantee and Insurance Corporation (EGAP).
Photo: Blaise Diagne airport (Source: X/Twitter @ Aeroport Dakar Blaise Diagne)
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