Chasingdreams

Senegalese businessman fulfills his aspirations in Yiwu and becomes a role model in his community

in the hall of the Yiwu international trade Service Center, 39-year-old Senegalese businessman Tirera Sourakhata smiles as he proudly shows a small card he received in July. Thanks to this blue card, he and his family are now entitled to social security benefits such as basic pension and education.

“All my children are studying in Yiwu,” Sourakhata told Chinafrica. “I have been here for 13 years. Yiwu is a welcoming city for foreigners. It’s my second home.”

Sourakhata, along with 14 other foreign businessmen, are part of the first batch of foreigners to be granted this card - the foreign merchant card - by the local government of Yiwu, a city in east China’s Zhejiang Province. in Senegal, and he easily could have joined them after graduation as planned. But instead, Sourakhata made a bold decision to seek business opportunities in a remote country: China. “I know that China can provide me with better business oppotunities,” he said.

He first arrived in south China’s metropolis Guangzhou in 2001, where he began purchasing clothing and shipping it back home to Senegal. In 2003, opportunities in hardware products caught his attention. On the advice of a friend, he left Guangzhou for Yiwu.

“The hardware products in Yiwu have similar quality as those from Dubai or Hong Kong, but at a much lower price,” said Sourakhata. Soon he opened his own hardware shop in Dakar, capital city of Senegal, and rented an apartment in Yiwu. This is how he started a life of commuting that lasted five years - every