The Coconut Residence is a five-star luxury hotel at Kololi, The Gambia, with 18 suites, 24-hour room service, conference facilities, two swimming pools and two en-suite pools. For the maximum of 36 guests, there are 150 staff. Gambian-born Farid Bensouda, one of the enterprise’s two proprietors, bought the land on which the Coconut stands about 15 years ago with the aim of investing in the tourism sector. But he waited for the right product and only decided on a luxury hotel in 1995. The investment was originally meant for the Caribbean but was attracted to The Gambia partly because of the investment climate and partly because of Mr.Bensouda’s vision.