Say is a town in southwest Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

, situated on the Niger River

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

. It is the capital of the Say Department

Say Department

Say is a department of the Tillabéri Region in Niger. Its capital city is Say, and includes the towns of Guéladjo, Tamou, and Torodi. It abuts the urban Region of Niamey, and lies across the Niger River to the southwest of the capital. It extends to the Burkina Faso border over 60km to the west,...

 in the Tillabéri Region. The municipality has 12,000 inhabitants, and its economy is dominated by agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, herding

Herding

Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group , maintaining the group and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. While the layperson uses the term "herding", most individuals involved in the process term it mustering, "working stock" or...

 and small trade.

Overview

The town houses the Islamic University of Niger

Islamic University of Niger

The Islamic University of Niger is an Islamic university based in Say, Niger.-History:...

 (Université Islamique de Say), an institute of international scope, whose founding was decided following a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in 1974, but that actually opened only in 1986. It had, in 1996, 400 students that pay fees much lower than those of the University of Niamey.http://www.ibe.unesco.org/countries/countryDossier/natrep96/niger96.pdf In Say there is also a forty-year-old College of Secondary Education (Collège d'enseignement secondaire), with nine teachers and 675 students.http://www.equipop.org/fr/espace_jeune/espace_jeune_liens/change_de_regards/carte_liens/page_ecole/niger_say.html

Transport

An extension of the railway from Benin

Railway stations in Benin

- Maps :* * - Cities served by rail :- Operational :* Cotonou - port* Porto Novo - national capital; cement factory* Bohicon* Dassa-Zoume* Savé* Parakou - railhead in north- Non operational :* Pobé - branch railhead in east* Ouidah - on line to west...

 to Niamey

Niamey

-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...

is proposed which would serve the iron ore mines at Say.