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colourful and bustling. Senegal is one
of Africa’s most stable countries with an economy that is based mainly on agri- culture; the primary sector is the fastest growing, due to support programs and robust external demand. The capital, Dakar, is a vibrant city famous for its lively markets and rich musical culture.
The Senegalese economy has tradition- ally revolved around a single cash crop, the peanut. The government, however, has worked to diversify both cash crops and subsistence agriculture by expand- ing into commodities such as cotton, garden produce, and sugarcane as well
as by promoting non-agricultural sectors. The government was successful in mak- ing fishing, phosphates, and tourism ma- jor sources of foreign exchange at the beginning of the 21st century, although the condition of the transportation and power infrastructure placed limits on the amount of expansion possible.
Exploitation of mineral resources such
as gold, petroleum, and natural gas
also diversified the economy. Worthy to note is that the move away from state intervention in the economy and a bid to encourage the reintroduction of private initiatives, was pursued in agricultural
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