Straddling the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahel, Côte d'Ivoire, and to a lesser extent Ghana, are the two economic locomotives of West Africa. They are now overtaken by Benin, which, on the strength of its political stability, has managed to implement an arsenal of reforms intended to develop its economy .

Benin is beginning to measure the first effects of its package of reforms, stemming from the government action plan (PAG). The country entered the category of middle-income countries in 2020: growth is robust (6.4%) and remains the first among the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) despite the global pandemic. The international institutions are also positive about their observations of the evolution of the internal situation of the country. Thus the IMF has awarded the country the mention “very good” on its rating scale for the management of public finances. Moreover, according to UNCTAD, Benin is the country where the creation of businesses is the easiest in the world. Even more recently, the country rose to 88th place in the Word Hapiness Review (153rd in 2017). However, the country's challenges remain significant, particularly in terms of energy and economic diversification. A state of affairs implicitly recalled by President Talon during his wishes for the end of 2020 who recalled the need to "consolidate the achievements [...] made in recent years". Clean up the State apparatus Resulting from the will of President Talon, the PAG is intended to reform the State in depth: a prerequisite for stimulating the private sector. The latter is seen as the main lever of the country's development through investment and job creation. The government aims to gradually finance the rationalization of the State from the country's own funds, with the desire to gradually free itself from international public aid; while improving the traceability and relevance of those already collected. To this end, nearly fifty reforms have been launched by the government of President Talon. Spearheaded by the Ministry of Economy and Finance headed by Romuald Wadagni, who was recently honored as “Best Minister in Africa” by the Financial Afrik Awards. All the reforms have a common objective: the rationalization of the State apparatus in order to make it a regional center of economic activity, via the acceleration of the creation of businesses (a few hours), access to water and electricity, clarification of building permit procedures, rationalization of tax policy (tax collection), simplification of cross-border trade procedures (one-stop shop for operations), access to credit and public contracts, banking, etc. These reforms are transcended by several axioms, including the simplification of procedures, legal clarification and above all, the digitization of operations. It is for the State to gain flexibility, rationalize and control its revenue and fight against corruption through the dematerialization of procedures. These reforms are modeled on the canons of governance of Doing Business, the benchmark report, in the next edition of which Benin should make progress, according to internal sources. For President Talon, this progress in governance is “a reason for collective satisfaction”. Diversify the economy Benin's economy depends largely on agriculture (70% of GDP), but still remains relatively unindustrialised. The government's objective is to channel investments into the primary sector in order to finance its technological and logistical transformation, but also the processing sector. The processing industry is indeed necessary to bring added value to national agricultural products while making the sector less dependent on international prices. If the transformation rate of the pineapple sector has already increased from 15 to 20% between 2015 and 2020, the government also wishes to stimulate the cashew, cotton, shea, market gardening, cotton, shea, soybean, mango, fishing and aquaculture sectors and breeding. The government's efforts are also focused on heavy infrastructure, such as roads or the repair of the port of Cotonou, in order to facilitate the flow of capital and goods to and within the country. In addition, many efforts have been made in urban sanitation and road repairs: progress for the living conditions of local residents. The electricity mix is not neglected and the connection to the network of a new power plant has made it possible to increase the electrification rate from 46.6 to 55.1% between 2015 and 2020. This is progress certain, but which still appears insufficient given the criticality of the sector and its role in the PAG. The maintenance of the level of growth during the 2020 pandemic, despite the closure of the border with Nigeria, confirmed a certain robustness of the Beninese economy. Indeed, the re-export operations of Nigerian products contribute nearly 20% to the national wealth. A result nuanced by the reality of the closure of the border, which is particularly porous. In any case, this dependence on the Nigerian market could be mitigated by the constitution of a manufacturing industrial fabric: a weak relative of the PAG. Political stability Despite the political crisis that marked the country during the 2019 legislative elections, due to the abstention of part of the opposition, the 2021 presidential election promises to be more peaceful with strong chances of victory for the President Talon. The reform of the electoral system, the cause of the troubles, seems to have been digested, even if debates remain. It had simplified the country's political deal by restricting the conditions necessary to be recognized as a political party: allowing the number of parties to be reduced from 250 to about fifteen. A desire for clarification for voters as much as an operation intended to fight against hidden funding. In terms of security, Benin is almost an exception in a region largely destabilized by Islamic terrorism. The latter is more often a corollary of the ancestral inter-ethnic troubles that shake the region, like Burkina Faso, Niger or Nigeria, which nevertheless have common borders with Benin. This can be explained, among other things, by a fairly balanced ethnic distribution; and a less intense sub-regional historical conflict than in the Sahelian rift. Of the forty or so ethnic groups in the country, the main ones are the Fons (39%), clearly in the majority, followed by the Guns (“cousins” of the Fons) and the Yoruba (related to the Fons). The northern part of the country, less populated and with a Muslim majority, is made up of Baribas (Voltaic) and, to a lesser extent, Fulani. If there is a very moderate risk factor because of the rivalries that can arise between these last two ethnic groups, they are not at this stage likely to pose serious security problems. But nothing comparable with the powder keg that characterizes the Sahel. So many valuable arguments for international investors. (*) Pierre d'Herbès is a consultant in economic intelligence (Herbès Conseil)