A victim of its turbulent business climate, Guinea let a major tourism investment slip right through its fingers. Owned by the Libyan company, Laico, the future Afriquiya Hotel will be built in Bamako.

Ismael Aidara, Paris

Planned in Guinea for mid-July 2008, then stalled (cf Les Afriques n°37), the installation of the gigantic Laico hotel will be built in Bamako, in Mali. The Libyan group decided to invest nearly 25 billion FCFAs (around 50 million US dollars) in the luxury hotel sector in Bamako, more specifically, on the banks of the Niger River, after their abandoned bid to set up business in Guinea. The future hotel complex, which will be called Afriquiya, the name of Laico’s hotel chain which began construction in 2008, will open in early 2010. According to an official source which has been following this story since it began in Bamako, Mali was second on the Laico’s shortlist after Guinea. Guinea’s unstable business climate seems to have affected its candidacy.

After Mali and Burkina, Laico Afriqiya decided to invest, in the years to come, in Niger, in the Central African Republic and in Chad.

The ultra-modern 5-star hotel project, which is being entirely integrated and financed by the Libyan group, includes 136 rooms and a dozen personalised suites. Approached by the Malian government a few months ago to beautify the city of Bamako, the Laico investment group released funds since August 2008 while deciding not to bet on a strategic alliance with Mali’s private sector. “Libyans wanted to control the entire process of the project – from the expertise to putting the financing together. Indeed, it is essentially a taking over and expansion of the Marietou Palace complex which went bankrupt without any takers,” acknowledged another source. Laico plans to build a commercial twin tower not far from the site so as to give the Malian capital a fresh face. The hotel project is the first link in the Laico Afriquiya hotel chain in Africa. With the purchase of Bamako’s Amitié and Kempeski hotels, the Libyan group will consolidate its presence in Mali which has become quite a centre of economic attraction in the sub-region for foreign investors. The technical aspects of the Afriquiya project have been left in the hands of the multinational Chinese company QDCG, the construction leader, who guaranteed the delivery of the international tourism plant by mid-January 2010 at the latest.

European competition

However, our source goes on to say, “the Libyan group must compete with the European hotel firm, Radisson, which just set up business in Bamako a few days ago, with a 13 billion FCFA investment through the Radisson-Mali hotel joint venture – a fruit of the private consortium between the Malian operator Cessé Komé and the Radisson firm.” The latter takes care of the management and overall running of the hotel complex situated in the residential district of Bamako, ACI 2000.

According to corroborative information, the hotel platform completes the Laico group in the South Sahara of which the instalment will require, in engineering terms, the colossal sum of 80 billion FCFA. The next board meeting of the group, which is scheduled to take place between March and April of 2009 in Tripoli, will officially determine the platform’s strategic options and the date of its operational launch on Burkinabe soil. The Libyan group expressed its intention to pursue its offensive in Africa. After Mali and Burkina, Laico Afriquiya decided to invest, in the years to come, in Niger, in the Central African Republic and in Chad. The global cost of these investment plans is estimated to be over 150 billion FCFA, stated a representative of the Libyan group.