Benin: How Benin Is Turning Its Cotton Wealth Into An Industrial Economy

Benin is using its position as West Africa’s largest cotton producer to pursue a bigger economic prize: processing more of what it grows at home. At the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ), cotton is being turned into fabrics and garments, creating jobs and retaining value that previously left the country with the trade of raw fibres. Its progress offers an emerging model for industrialisation for the continent.

At the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone, about 45 kilometres north of Cotonou, young workers such as team leader Inès Alowakinnou are gaining experience in an industry that barely existed at this scale a few years ago. Their work lies at the centre of Benin’s ambitious attempt to turn its cotton wealth into factories, formal employment and a more diversified economy.

“Working conditions are good, I’m gaining experience, and I wouldn’t hesitate to encourage any young person to follow my example,” says Alowakinnou, who works in the industrial engineering department.

According to the IMF 2024 Country Report, Benin’s exports have been mainly concentrated in commodities such as cotton and cashews, accounting for more than one third of total export between 2016 and 2021 (before adjusting for informal trade flows).

For Benin Textile Corporation maintenance supervisor, Manfaz Lamidi, the satisfaction comes from maintaining production and solving technical breakdowns and defects. Their experiences reflect the larger ambition behind GDIZ: to transform Benin from an exporter of raw agricultural commodities into a manufacturer and seller of higher-value products.

Benin harvested 533,590 tonnes of seed cotton during the 2025/26 season, regaining its position as the leading producer in the CFA franc zone. But producing large volumes of cotton does not automatically deliver the full economic value of the crop. That value increases as fibre moves through ginning, spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, garment production, branding and retail.

GDIZ is attempting to bring more of those stages inside Benin.

“For many decades, most African countries have always exported raw commodities without any value addition. But in Benin, we have decided to take matters into our own hands to change that paradigm so that we can create more wealth and jobs out of our natural resources,” says GDIZ CEO Létondji Beheton.

The foundations of the GDIZ model’s success

GDIZ is a public-private partnership between Benin and industrial infrastructure developer Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP) covers a planned 1,640 hectares, with 400 hectares allocated to its first phase. Construction started in 2021.

Although cotton and textiles are central to its operations, the zone is also intended to process locally produced cashew nuts, soybeans, maize and other agricultural commodities, and mineral resources such as clay, kaolin, granite, etc.

“We do not copy and paste in Benin,” Beheton says. “What we do, we look at other models and we create our own model, and this is what we have done here.”

For decades — since the first free zones emerged in the 1960s and 70s — the success of a Special Economic Zone was measured by its tax incentives. Today, industrial investors weigh reliable power, ready-built factory space, port access, and workforce training as much as tax breaks. The GDIZ has built its pitch around exactly these — a 1,640-hectare site with turnkey infrastructure, on-site logistics to the Port of Cotonou, and worker-training programs like Azôli, which has already placed more than 5,000 young people into factory jobs.

“In this zone, we have a single window counter where you have more than 17 public entities,” Beheton says, citing immigration, tax, customs and other government services. These are intended to give investors one point of contact in terms of all the paperwork that is needed for them to develop their business .

Companies located in the GDIZ benefit from major exemptions, including a total and permanent exemption from corporate income tax, business tax and VAT on inputs, as well as full customs duty exemption on imported equipment.

The GDIZ has transformed Benin’s cotton sector by mobilizing over €1.3 billion in investments, creating 16,000 direct jobs in the textile industry, and reaching a capacity of 40,000 tons of fiber processing and 24 million garments annually, making it Africa’s top industrial zone.

“This model works because of the quality achieved through initial investments that have positioned the company among the most modern,” explains independent consultant and agricultural economist Sourou Prisciron Zinsou.

“All Beninese people benefit. Directly, there are the employees and their families, but there are also the infrastructure projects financed by taxes collection, including those collected from the GDIZ,” Zinsou says.

“It brings agricultural production closer to industrialization (….). The primary beneficiaries are evidently the cotton producers,” says economics and local development expert Rouhaïmatou Bio Sanna .

Employment is one of GDIZ’s biggest drawcards. The zone reports that more than 25,000 jobs have been created across textiles, garment manufacturing and agribusiness, with women and young people making up a substantial share of its workforce. “The zone’s overall objective is to reach 300,000 direct jobs and approximately 600,000 indirect jobs by 2030,” says Beheton.

Achieving that target would make GDIZ a significant source of formal industrial employment. It would also open new career paths for young people in a country where many livelihoods remain concentrated in agriculture and informal commerce.

Capturing more value from every harvest

GDIZ’s three integrated textile units have the capacity to process 40,000 tonnes of fibre annually which Beheton says is equivalent to 12.7% of Benin’s annual fibre output.

“Within the next five to seven years, we’ll process the entire output,” he says.

According to the World Bank, investment and the expansion of the GDIZ are important drivers of Benin’s economic growth. The company benefits from a local consumption market made of several brands including but not limited to Susu and Obalè which is a premium brand.

“The goal is to guarantee high-level marketing, both for export and domestically, because our primary market is ourselves. We must set an example,” says former Minister of Trade Alimatou Shadiya Assouman.

According to Beheton, the GDIZ show companies have worked with international clothing businesses and brands, including The Children’s Place, H&M, KIABI, GEMO, C&A and US Polo Assn. It also reports exports to European markets, including France, Germany and Spain.

Another opportunity has emerged through the WTO’s C4+1 partnership initiatives — including a 2022 agreement with FIFA to source more cotton for the federation’s sportswear and merchandising from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, and a $12 billion investment push launched with UNIDO in 2024 to help these countries, along with Côte d’Ivoire, process more of their fibre into finished textiles and clothing.

The FIFA-related programme includes ‘Football for Schools’, and Beheton says Benin is the only participating country to supply products under this initiative.

“We have supplied over 170,000 pieces already,” he says.

Building skills alongside factories

Benin’s textile industry still depends heavily on imported machinery, advanced technology and foreign technical expertise but GDIZ’s leadership has a longer-term objective to grow local skills.

“We are developing skills here in Benin, so we are able in the long run to manufacture our own equipment,” Beheton says, pointing to innovation hubs such as Sèmè City. The goal, he adds, is to build “an industry that is sustainable and not so much dependent upon foreign vendors”.

Sèmè City is a flagship smart eco-city project launched in 2017 by the Beninese government and aims to become a regional hub for higher education, scientific research, and tech entrepreneurship in West Africa.

Competing beyond incentives

Benin has a competitive advantage which is crucial in economic growth. Unlike countries such as China and Bangladesh which import cotton fibre, the West African country has a local source of supply of good quality fiber at a reasonable cost.

“Fibre is available, it is processed. So, we have the advantage of going directly from the fibre to the market,” says GDIZ director Létondji Beheton.

But heavy industry requires power and rising fuel costs are a risk, along with a limited grid capacity. This is something the government is working hard at addressing.

“So far, we are producing more than 200 megawatts,” Beheton says. “We are adding every year more megawatts through the solar plant, as well as other projects that are ongoing.”

Economics and local development expert Rouhaïmatou Bio Sanna warns that GDIZ companies must build true, long-term competitiveness and cannot rely on the fact that their cotton resources are grown locally. But Beheton is confident about the outlook.

“Benin will fully transform its own agricultural commodities [and] mining resources locally, and create a lot of jobs and wealth for its people, that is the way forward.”