Senegal's crunch year

With two major projects ready for sanctioning, 2018 will be pivotal for the country's upstream aspirations

Senegal is undergoing a transformation. The bustling streets of the capital Dakar play host to a forest of construction sites spawning office blocks and smart apartment buildings, while the opening in December of a $0.6bn out-of-town airport should enhance the country's credentials as a regional economic hub. All this reflects an economy growing at a clip-more than 6% recently; faster than it has for years—an expanding urban middle class and fast population growth. One of Africa's most vibrant and effective democracies, the country has also proved to be a beacon of stability in a region where the neighbours' politics are often less than transparent and afflicted by Islamist violence. But Sen