Celebrating fruitful partnerships

Radio continues to be a very popular medium in Africa. Here, a furniture shop owner listens to radio while he waits for customers in Dakar, Senegal.

© picture alliance / Xinhua News Agency / Eddy Peters

Through radio and television, DW and EXCAF Télécom are active at the heart of one of Africa’s most stable democracies, providing their audience with diverse content.

by Tanja Suttor-Ba, DW Distribution

With a population of 17 million people, Senegal enjoys a diverse media landscape. Radio is a strong multi-lingual medium with more than 450 public, commercial and community radio frequencies nationwide, more than 50 of them in the capital Dakar. Many stations in Senegal, are characterized by their thematic specializations, for example in music, religion or women as a target group. As different as Senegalese radios may be, they have one thing in common: Wolof—as the preferred broadcast language.

DW’s most important partner in the country, EXCAF Télécom, operates four radio and two TV stations across the country in Wolof and French. The topics covered range from environmental and health issues to news and entertainment such as the German Football League Bundesliga, which has become popular among the Senegalese population.

“The collaboration with DW has been strengthened and expanded. It is important for the French-speaking zone in Africa because it promotes exchange opportunities within the DW partner network,” says Sidy Diagne, CEO of EXCAF Télécom. DW Afrique and EXCAF Télécom established a weekly segment on news and COVID-19 in 2020, and since March 2021, the weekly broadcast of a Bundesliga football match.

DW’s constructive environmental magazine Eco Afrique is co-produced by EXCAF Télécom and broadcast on their TV station RDV since 2017. The fruitful radio partnership between the media houses was established in 2007 and extended to television in 2010. “I can only be happy about this more-than-10-year partnership with DW. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have dedicated a special channel on the Senegalese DTT platform SEN TNT a special channel to important topics such as health and COVID-19 where we broadcast DW content every day,” says Diagne.

Dunyaa FM, one of EXCAF Télécom’s radio stations based in Dakar, features the francophone DW Afrique program. Its strength lies in the adaptation of regional topics that are relevant to the audience in Dakar, Kaolack, Kolda, Louga, Mbour, Richard Toll, Saint Louis, Tambacounda, Thies and Ziguinchor.

Senegal is regarded as one of Africa’s most stable democracies. There is a strong journalists’ union which is considered more independent than comparable unions in neighboring countries. The country also has a press code since 2017—however its implementation has been repeatedly delayed. Senegal ranks 49th out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

EXCAF Télécom

was founded by Sidy Diagne’s father Ibrahima Diagne in 1972 as a trade show company. There were no private television or radio networks in Senegal at that time. In the 1990s, the company ventured into the radio market and, in 2005, the television market.

Sidy Diagne, EXCAF Télécom CEO

© EXCAF Télécom

Soico Group

in Mozambique, together with DW, provides with Eco Africa a solutionoriented format. The format encourages to find creative ideas in one’s own life. It is a unique concept as there is no comparable format focusing on environmental issues. The choice of topics is courageously chosen and highly relevant, innovative and emotional at the same time. It offers information to viewers to raise their awareness on issues such as sustainability, climate change and environmental protection. “The partnership between DW and Soico Group is an exemplary success,” says Soico Group CEO Daniel David. He asserts that being able to disseminate these best-practice examples from the African continent, as well as new ideas on environmental issues, encourages entrepreneurship and inspires future generations.

Daniel David, Soico Group CEO

© Soico Group