West Africa
A regional tourism architecture shaped by three structural forces no Western publication tracks adequately. The CFA franc monetary arrangement that binds eight UEMOA states to the eurozone. The ECOWAS political realignment following the 2024 Sahel confederation departure. Lagos as the continent's most commercially dynamic city without a regional hub airline. The Corridor's West Africa desk launches with Issue 012 on the Faye-Sonko government's sovereigntist restructuring of Senegal.
Senegal is rebuilding the tourism state. The currency is the part it cannot rebuild.
In twenty-four months the Faye-Sonko government has commissioned a public finance audit, published the Senegal 2050 vision, written a National Development Strategy and launched a Plan de Redressement financed almost entirely from domestic resources. It has not restructured the one arrangement that constrains all of them. The CFA franc peg at 655.957 to the euro has held since 1999. Tourism is the sector where the contradiction becomes most visible.
Read the analysis →Read by tourism ministries, hotel investors and the analysts who advise them.
Every Monday morning, one analytical brief on the intersection of African tourism and global political economy. Free.
Subscribe — every Monday