A recent report from Revue Magazine states that the country of Senegal does not even make the top 20 of growing Sub-Saharan economies, based on estimations for the period of 2007 until 2010. While part of the explanation can be found in the very strong growth of many other countries (Mozambique and Ethiopia come to mind), it remains surprising that the country that should be considered as being the West African hub is growing at a much slower pace than its neighbours.
Add to this the unemployment figures, which indicate that up to 50% of the population are currently on the outside of the job market, and the picture becomes even more grim. The rising unemployment in turn has a huge impact on rural-urban migration, with in particular the young unemployed moving to the big cities in search for prosperity. Unfortunately, jobs are few and far in between in the bigger cities like Dakar. Many, therefore, have to resort to jobs that are either in the informal economy or to those that barely make them a living. The clearest example in Dakar: taxi drivers.
It is impossible to walk the streets of Dakar and not hear the constant honking of taxi drivers trying to get your attention. At any given time, taxis outnumber regular cars on the streets of Greater Dakar. Taxi drivers come in different sizes and shapes, but can roughly be divided in two groups: those organised in associations on the one hand, and the lonely one-man business on the other hand.
The taxidrivers that are together in any form of association do this to protect themselves from disruptive outside influences, like these one-man taxis who, with the right connections and some spending capital, can be in business in less than a day. These organisations also pride themselves for not just being “conducteurs de taxi”, but what they have called “taximan”. The latter implies that they grew up in Dakar and know the street patterns and names by heart - this last bit in particular proving to be a serious problem with the majority of taxi drivers.
On a normal day, a taxi driver will make around 10000 CFA, or 15€, per day, which might seem reasonable at first sight. However, once you deduct from this the ever increasing fuel costs, plus the inevitable weekly repairs to their cars that seem to defy the laws of physics by still running, and you end up with way less.
Moreover, a big number of taxi drivers don’t actually own their own taxi. They rent them from a ‘chef’, for a price of around 10000 CFA... yes, about what they can earn on a normal day’s work. This entails that taxi drivers are actually constantly at risk of running a loss, which makes their hard bargaining (especially when foreigners ask for a taxi) more understandable and their never-ending enthusiasm to talk with new customers even more admirable.
“Le dieu est grand. Il faut rouler.” - Taximan M.
Luc
