In November, Lekela welcomed the local community of Taiba N’Diaye, Senegal, to celebrate the opening of its new marketplace. The construction of the new marketplace was carried out by Lekela as part of its community investment programme for our Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye (PETN) wind farm.
The inauguration was held at the Taiba N’Diaye Town Hall, which is located next to the new marketplace. The event was attended by 100 representatives of the local Women’s Association, who will benefit directly from this new construction.
The new marketplace has over 60 covered stalls which will allow women to relocate from the makeshift shelters they have previously used to sell their products. By providing a safe place for the local women to trade from, the marketplace will help to contribute to job creation in the area.
This is the second of this kind of project from Lekela, following the refurbishment of the Mbayenne marketplace, which was completed in late 2018. Lekela’s community investment programme has focused on promoting enterprise development and job creation, and these marketplaces are a key part of this.
Earlier this year, our PETN wind farm ran a four month electrical training course in collaboration with Thies Technical College and Eiffage, for twelve young adults from the local community. The participants, five of whom were women, divided their time between the classroom at Thies Technical College and working on-site with Eiffage technicians.
The inauguration was also used as an opportunity to hold a combined ceremony to celebrate the graduation of the Lekela’s twelve electrical trainees who participated in the programme. The trainees were presented with certificates of achievement by the wind farm and contractors. Lekela was proud to recognise their hard work and achievements, which form a key part of efforts to upskill local community members.