Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

’s high population growth and migration from the rural areas to

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

has resulted in the mushrooming of squatter settlements on Dakar’s periphery.Senegal Country Commercial Guide 2008
.

U.S. Commercial Service The United States Commercial Service (CS) is the trade promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. CS is a part of the U.S. Foreign Service and its commercial officers are diplomats. The CS global netwo ...

(2008).

Housing affordability

Further, the high costs of construction materials – imported for the most part – combined with prohibitive interest rates – in the range of 8-10% according to BHS, the housing bank – have made housing too expensive for the average Senegalese and for low-income families. As a result, there is a critical shortage of

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...

, and the Government has estimated at 120,000 the number of units to be built every year in order to meet a growing demand. Under President

Abdoulaye Wade Abdoulaye Wade (born 29 May 1926)
Encyclopedia of the Nations. Retrieved February 28, ...

’s initiative “one family-one home”, a battery of incentives has been presented to potential homebuilders, as long as the cost of the house does not exceed

CFA Franc The CFA franc (french: franc CFA, , Franc of the Financial Community of Africa, originally Franc of the French Colonies in Africa, or colloquially ; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the name of two currencies, the West African CFA franc, used in eight We ...

7 million ($15,500). They range from providing free land to homebuilders, a 3.3% subsidy to the target buyers of the houses, and tax holidays for imported construction equipment.

References

{{Senegal topics Economy of Senegal Society of Senegal