(Ecofin Agency) - Last week-end, the government of Senegal inked an agreement worth CFA100 billion ($176 million) with the Czech firm Transcon to rehabilitate the country’s regional airports.

The agreement was initialed by the minister of air transports and airport infrastructures’ development, Maïmouna Ndoye Seck, and Transcon’s director, Iija Mazanek, in the presence of the Czech ambassador to Senegal, Miloslav Machalek. 

The deal will extend over 47 months (about four years) and will help modernize the airports of Saint-Louis, Matam, Ziguinchor, Tambacounda and Kédougou. 

The move falls in line with the government’s will to make the country a major airport hub, and the national airline a key player in West Africa.

“Today, Dakar’s air hub is fully growing with a greater fleet owed to Air Sénégal which just signed a contract to acquire the latest A330neo jet. This only five months after the purchase of two ATR 72-600 turboprops which are actually being delivered,” the minister said.  

In Senegal, “aviation is a driver of economic growth”. Last Saturday’s deal was reached only a few weeks after the commissioning of Blaise Diagne international airport.

Fiacre E. Kakpo