Adeel Malik
Senegalese superstar Sadio Mane, Cristiano Ronaldo’s teammate at Saudi club Al Nassr, has already helped build a school and a hospital in his hometown. He has also funded a mosque, a petrol station and other projects for the community where he grew up.
Now he is putting around $20 million into something that could create jobs for years to come as reported by the Gulf News. Allah says in the Quran 57:18:
Indeed, those men and women who give in charity and lend to Allah a good loan will have it multiplied for them, and they will have an honourable reward.
The former Liverpool star is behind a huge mango farming and processing project in Bambali, Senegal, the village where he was born.
Called SM10 Agro, the project is valued at 11.7 billion CFA francs, around $20 million, and will cover about 500 hectares. More than 1,000 direct jobs are expected to be created, with the wider project targeting even more employment in the future.
So what exactly is Mane building?
In simple terms, Mané wants to grow mangoes, process them in his hometown and sell the finished products.
Around 78,000 mango trees are planned, with the first harvest expected in about three years.
But instead of simply growing mangoes and sending them elsewhere, factories will be built in Bambali to turn the fruit into products such as mango pulp, dried mango and mango butter.
There will also be a centre to prepare fresh mangoes for export. That is important because a lot of mangoes grown in the region currently go to waste.
Mane said around 30 to 40 per cent of the mango harvest in the Sedhiou region is lost because there are not enough facilities to store and process the fruit.
His idea is simple: rather than allowing those mangoes to go to waste, process them locally, sell them and create jobs for people living there.
“I want the wealth of our land to stay here, with us,” Mane said.
More than just donating money
Mane has never forgotten Bambali despite becoming one of Africa’s biggest football stars.
Over the years, he has funded several projects in his hometown, including a school, hospital, mosque and petrol station. But this project is slightly different.
Building a school or hospital provides an important service to the community. SM10 Agro is designed to create jobs and generate money for the local economy for years.
The project will also include agricultural training for young people, giving them the opportunity to learn skills that could lead to employment.
Mane left Bambali as a youngster with dreams of becoming a professional footballer. Years later, he is returning with a project that could give more than 1,000 people in the region an opportunity to build a future without having to leave home.
