Souadou Niang is a popular figure in Senegal’s hospitality industry. Her popularity defies her humble beginnings. Her persistence and drive to overcome obstacles is almost legendary in nature.

The persistence and drive explain how she became the proprietor of The Palm Luxury Boutique Hotel in Dakar, the Senegalese commercial and political capital.

The luxury hotel is a product of years of toiling and sacrifice as toilet and hotel cleaner in the United States. For Niang, earning decent pay mattered more than the type of job she was employed in the land of endless opportunities and dreams.

The Senegalese businesswoman opened this luxury hotel in 2017, opening a new chapter in her life. She grew up in Dakar, where she was born and later immigrated to New York at the age of 18 to further her education.

Getting a good education was her ticket to a new life, but one that she would sacrifice so much for. Therefore, Niang had no option but to do menial jobs to pay for her education. Interviewed by BBC after the commissioning of the hotel, Naing said The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington DC shaped her view of business with the result being what she is today as a leading investor in the hospitality industry.

She recalls that after noticing how beautiful The Ritz Carlton Hotel was, she walked in and inquired about a job opportunity. So, while studying, she would work parttime as a sanitation member of staff.

Niang subscribes to the mantra that “all dreams are valid” has been popularised by US-based Hollywood Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o. Her Hotel de Palm couldn’t be farther from that mantra. While she was the lowest-ranked and poorly paid employee at the hotel, she harboured big dreams and the conviction of her role model, Dr Ben Carson.

Niang was sure of her potential and this gave her the drive to push boundaries farther for her to become a better person. She longed for the day she would join the top management of the hotel, which pushed her study harder because she knew as a Senegalese, she stood a high chance. It was just a matter of time, she believed, before she dethroned the Ghanaians and the Senegalese who were quickly ascending to the five-star’s hotel senior management.

Her struggles were real and she worked throughout her stay in the US as student. She served as a cleaner while studying until the day she dumped the brooms, pails and moppers. This was after 10 years.

After she graduated with a degree in business administration, she joined Riz Carlton’s management team. This would be the penultimate push in her quest to start a new venture as a hotel owner back in Dakar.

However, routine African gender stereotypes presented a challenge she had to overcome. It discouraged her, besides having little investment capital. She applied for loans from several banks but none of them was willing to trust her.

In Dakar, just like in many African countries, she needed guarantors to get credit. Unfortunately, she had none of that which made her realise that Africa’s banking industry is so much different from what is in the US.

If it was in the states, she wouldn’t need any guarantor but here she was – in Dakar. One day luck smiled on her! Somebody she regards as a God-sent appeared on the scene and was willing to gamble.

“One day I got lucky. In one of the banks, there was a risk committee and the director who manages all the bank’s branches in Africa was present at one of the meetings. He told me: ‘I see your determination. I see the spark in your eyes when you talk about your project. I believe in you. I’ll take the risk of lending you money.”

That’s how her dream transformed from a figment in the mind to a concept, then reality.

Hotel de Palm valuation is now in millions of dollars. Niang cannot put an exact figure on the current valuation of her investment, but what is not in doubt is her multi-millionaire rating in Dakar.

She still wants to expand it, she says. This is because Niang understands the potential of Africa’s hospitality industry has and therefore has a vision to expand her business beyond Senegal.

The Dakar-born entrepreneur implores that investors in the hospitality sector to demonstrate they have the knack and mettle to do even better. In her view, more African women should prove to the world that they have the capacity to own and run world class hotels.

• A Tell report