As part of the Invest In Senegal Forum (Fii Senegal 2025), the Ministry of Industry and Trade organized a Boardroom dedicated to agropoles. This event, specific to Senegal's National Agropole Development Program, was held on Wednesday, October 8, to discuss investments. It was chaired by Minister Dr. Serigne Guèye Diop, in the presence of his colleague Dr. Mabouba Diagne, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, as well as the Director of Operations of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Mr. Rachid Sam; the Country Manager of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr. Mohamed A. Cherif; and the Ambassador of Belgium, Ms. Hélène De Bock.

A fruitful framework for sharing business opportunities and the global environment

This is a fruitful framework for sharing business opportunities and the overall environment established within the framework of agropoles, to attract, facilitate and guarantee the success of private investment in agribusiness. It is therefore a good opportunity offered to the general public and participants to exchange directly with key stakeholders, namely: the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture, technical and financial partners and the private sector.

One of the priority programs of the Senegalese government to materialize the Vision Senegal 2050, the agropoles aim to sustainably establish an endogenous economy of value chains whose main levers will be Agriculture and Industry.

To achieve this, the Minister of Industry and Trade argued that these two key sectors of the Senegalese economy must "interact in a complementary manner, with agro-industry as the junction point, which relies, upstream, on significant work to structure and develop the sectors." According to him, this industrialization of the Senegalese primary sector in its various components and products (agriculture, livestock, fishing, agroforestry, etc.) is, ultimately, the main vocation of the agropoles.

"Agropoles aim to promote agro-industry as the driving force behind the structural transformation of our economy. This desire presupposes an increase in the contribution of agriculture and industry to the creation of national wealth and the structure of economic growth," emphasized Dr. Serigne Guèye Diop.

He adds: "As a major player in this transformation, the private sector must guarantee its success by seizing, with the help of large-scale private investment in agro-industry, the opportunities offered by the State of Senegal in the context of the establishment of the South, Center, North, East and West agropoles."

In this regard, the Minister reported that the State has mobilized more than 500 billion CFA francs from its technical partners for the construction of structural infrastructure and the establishment of a comprehensive framework to guarantee the security of investments and the competitiveness of industries. These State efforts will ultimately translate, for the South, Center, and North agropoles alone, into the establishment of 47 functional agro-industrial parks in the eight economic development centers, equipped with all amenities and ready for use.

According to him, the agro-industrial parks of the agropoles will thus constitute "modern poles of agro-industrial development and incubators of industries which will allow them to group together to achieve economies of scale by pooling infrastructures and services such as connectivity and communication infrastructures (roads, internet), water and electricity supply, storage, logistics and transport, treatment of effluents and by-products of processing, analysis laboratories, one-stop service counters, etc."

These integrated infrastructures, three of which are ready to welcome private investors, in Adéane, Mbellacadiao and Kolda, will also be important vectors of technological innovation.

State assurances to private investors

To private investors who will be able to seize the opportunities offered, in particular by establishing themselves on the sites of the developed agro-industrial parks of the agropoles, the Minister of Industry reassures that they can be convinced that the State, thanks to a perfect synergy of actions between the Ministry of Agriculture and that in charge of Industry, will provide them with sufficient and quality agricultural raw materials in all processing sectors, coming, among others, from supported family farms and various programs, such as the Community Agricultural Cooperatives (CAC), the Large Agricultural Perimeters of Senegal (GPAS), the Community Agricultural Estates (DAC) and integrated individual farms.

Finally, the minister announced that the South and Central agropoles will be launched by the end of the year.

During the meeting, the ministry's teams gave a detailed presentation on the numerous investment opportunities in agro-poles. A partnership agreement was also signed.