Press Release

OPEC Fund finances housing construction in Senegal

51/2005 April 21, 2005, Vienna, Austria

The OPEC Fund for International Development today signed a €1.9 million loan agreement with United Contractors & Builders Senegal Limited (UCBS) to finance housing units in the capital, Dakar. The project, which is to be co-financed with Shelter Afrique and the Housing Bank of Senegal, aims to address the city’s housing shortage.

With an urban population growth rate of 5% per year, Senegal is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa. This has led to severe pressure on housing and infrastructure, especially in Dakar.

The land earmarked for development is located in the suburb of M’Bao in Dakar’s Pikine District, some 18 km from the city center. The project aims to construct 1,063 housing units in five consecutive phases over a five-year period. Phase one will develop 9.4 hectares of the 37.7 ha site and build a total of 315 units, the majority of them for low-income families. Ranging in size from 60 m² to 186 m² on plots of 155 m² to 306 m², all properties will be provided with utilities, including piped water and electricity, as well as sewage disposal and connection to the national telephone network. Other important infrastructure, such as access roads and storm water drainage, will also be constructed.

The project will meet important economic and development objectives. In addition to addressing the demand for housing, it will facilitate access to land ownership for thousands of Senegalese. It will also create jobs and improve the urban environment by helping to develop a new residential area.

Although substantial contributions have been made over the years to the country’s public sector, this is the Fund’s first private sector operation in Senegal. Public sector interventions include balance of payments support, commodity imports programs, debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and projects in the agriculture, transportation, education, industry and water supply and sewerage sectors. In March 2002, an agreement for the protection and encouragement of investment entered into force between the Fund and the government of Senegal.

Today’s agreement was signed in Vienna on behalf of UCBS by Mrs. Béatrice Caillot-Sottas, Director-General, and Mr. Lucien Arcidiaco, Assistant Director-General, and by H.E. Mr. Jamal Nasser Lootah, Chairman of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund.