Benin's New Road Eases Cotton Transport Bottleneck
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Benin, Africa's largest cotton producer, is improving its infrastructure with a new 184km road connecting the northern cotton-growing regions to the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ) near Cotonou, easing a major transport bottleneck.
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Warum es wichtig ist
Benin, Africa's largest cotton producer, faced infrastructure challenges connecting its northern cotton-growing regions to processing facilities. A new road aims to alleviate this bottleneck.
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.
Aristide Medenou, Benin’s new Finance Minister, said the project was a logical investment given Banikoara’s location.
Offene Fragen
- Will the new road fully resolve the transport issues?
- What is the total investment in the GDIZ?
