How Benin is on the road to reshaping its cotton industry, with China’s help

A 184km road project will make transport easier while Chinese experts and firms are assisting with technical support and local processing

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Benin’s new Cotton Road will link the north and south of the country and is expected to cut travel times by up to 75 per cent. Photo: Handout

Jevans NyabiagePublished: 2:00pm, 21 Jun 2026For decades, moving Benin’s cotton harvest from the north of the country to its southern ports was a slow, difficult journey along unpaved roads.

Benin is Africa’s largest cotton producer, but it lacked the infrastructure needed to connect its northern cotton-growing belt to the coast and processing plants in the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ) near Cotonou, the country’s largest city and economic capital.

The GDIZ – part of the government’s efforts to end raw cotton exports – now processes a fifth of the national cotton harvest into finished clothing for global brands such as US Polo Assn and The Children’s Place.

But the transport bottleneck is easing, thanks to a 184km (114-mile) road from Djougou in the northwest to Banikoara in the northeast – the “white gold” capital accounting for more than a third of Benin’s total cotton production.

The project – which is nearing completion – has been co-financed by the European Union and the Africa Growing Together Fund, a US$2 million facility funded by the People’s Bank of China and administered by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).