Benin, like a handful of other Sahelian states, is a major producer of cotton, but virtually all the production is exported to Asian and Western countries to be converted into higher-value products including fabrics. But an ambitious project centred on a special economic zone is set to change this by processing the crop through all its various stages.
On a sprawling industrial estate about 40km from Cotonou, Benin’s capital, a bold enterprise is attempting to reverse an economic model that has defined much of the continent’s trade with the outside world since European ships first made landfall on the West African coast – instead of exporting its raw materials, Benin wants to process them locally and in the process, spur an industrial boom that will boost its gross domestic product and create much needed jobs.
That is the central idea behind the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone, a joint venture between the government of Benin and Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms, a Dubai-based firm with a history of building similar parks in the region.
According to Faki Adje, GDIZ’s deputy general manager, the project originated during the time of former President Patrice Talon (2016- 2026), a businessman who had made his fortune in the cotton industry.
“He wanted to change the paradigm of the economy of the country, to move it from exporting our raw commodities to Bangladesh and elsewhere and to add value to the commodities by processing them. That was the pillar of his idea for industrialisation,” Adje recalls.
Benin, with an output of between 650,000 – 750,000 tons, is Africa’s largest producer of seed cotton. It constitutes some 40% of the country’s GDP and 80% of its exports.
Benin, however, lacked an industrial base and the expertise to develop a large-scale industrial platform, so the government partnered with ARISE IIP, which had already developed an industrial zone in Gabon, to establish GDIZ in February 2020.
The park itself stretches over some 1,648 hectares and is being developed in three phases. The first 400 hectares are already fully developed; some 40 investors have already established a presence, with 19 factories already processing cotton, soya, beans, palm oil, cashew, chia, clay and other materials into finished products for the region and beyond.
The company responsible for operating the zone, CP, generates revenue from the services it provides to investors. It supplies electricity, gas and optical fibre, while also charging development and management fees to cover the construction, maintenance and management of the infrastructure.
The park has succeeded in attracting €1.4bn with investors responding to a mix of incentives under Benin’s Special Economic Zone regime.
These include a 100% exemption on imported equipment and commercial materials during construction, corporate tax holidays of at least 12 years and potentially up to 17 years, salary-tax exemptions and guarantees allowing investors to repatriate revenues.
The government also subsidises electricity, with the current tariff in the zone put at about $0.10 per kilowatt-hour, with a target of reducing this to between $0.07 and $0.08.
Unusual incentive
For textile investors, the government provides another unusual incentive. It pays the salaries of workers under 35 during their first nine to 12 months, while they acquire the skills required by the factory. So far, 1500 people have been trained under the programme. “Some of them started as operators, and now they are supervisors; they are quality managers. They are smart, and we just need to identify them and give them the training,” Adje says.
Raw cotton from the country’s fields is brought to the park and, through several different companies, emerges from the park as clothes, bedsheets, towels and other finished products bound for shops in Benin, across Africa, Europe, America and as far as South America.
Currently, Adje says, about 30% of Benin’s cotton is being processed by three textile production operations in the park. This is only two years after textile production began at GDIZ. Adje says that “we are working to be able to process all the cotton that we produce in the country.” The complete development of the textile ecosystem, he says, could generate up to 300,000 jobs. The aim is to reach this milestone by 2030.
There are some inherent advantages. Raw materials are plentiful and easily accessible. The region is closer to the major customer destinations of Europe and America than competing hubs in Vietnam, Bangladesh or China.
As Adje points out, “we are 15 shipping days away from Europe and America. Asia is 30-45 days away.” And as wages rise in those other countries, the continent’s abundant working-age population may become irresistible to manufacturers with a keen eye on costs.
But there are some significant drawbacks, too. Key among them are energy supply and infrastructure. “That is the only area in which Africa finds it difficult to compete,” Adje observes.
It is not the only challenge, however. To be globally competitive, a factory producing in Benin needs markets large enough to support scale; it needs efficient roads, ports and shipping connections, and it needs workers, managers and technicians with the right qualifications.
It also needs trade rules that allow goods to circulate without the continent’s existing patchwork of barriers. Despite the hopes associated with the African Continental Free Trade Area, the continent is some distance from that Utopia.
Nevertheless, global brands, including H&M, US Polo Association, and some European football clubs, are outsourcing part of their production to Benin Textiles and the Garment Training Centre based at the park. A notable coup was FIFA selecting the park to produce some of the jerseys for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Raw material advantage
Manufacturing for foreign brands, however, is only part of the ambition. In the last week of July, the president of the African Export-Import Bank, George Elombi, launched the Obale Store, an outlet for high-end fashion pieces produced in the park. The bank is a major financial backer of the park, and Elombi believes Africa can claim a much larger share of the $2 trillion that the global textile industry is estimated to be worth by 2030.
“Under the vision we have set for the Bank, we are determined to move Africa from exporting raw potential to exporting finished value. As one of the world’s major cotton producers, Africa already holds the raw material advantage, making textiles a natural and strategic entry point for rapid value-added transformation,” Elombi said at the launch.
Elombi went on to declare that “Made in Africa, branded in Africa, owned in Africa, and distributed to Africa and to the world” is the ultimate ambition. That could prove decisive for the long-term survival and success of the park.
For now, GDIZ offers a model that African nations and institutions are taking note of. In the week before the launch of the Obale store, Kashim Shettima, the Vice-President of Nigeria, visited the country. The question is whether the model is replicable in other African countries.
Adje says that it is entirely possible, but the first requirement is to build around a country’s own comparative advantages. The second is political commitment. “The strong commitment and willingness to make it happen,” he says, is essential, including the ability to overcome vested interests. This may ultimately be the most difficult hurdle to overcome.
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Can Benin serve as a model for African cotton value addition?
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