Source: Global Network
(Author: West Africa Research Center Team, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, author: Fikru Tizita Endeshaw (Team member of West Africa Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) 【West Africa Talks】Issue 16, Issue 65, 2022. Translator: Hong Ling (Foreign Chinese College); Proofreader: Zhao Yunhan (Foreign Chinese College); Organized by: Meng Yaqi (School of Public Administration), Huang Rui (School of Public Administration)
； Contribution: West Africa Research Center Team, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China)1. Introduction
The West African country of Benin, officially known as the Republic of Benin. It borders Burkina Faso to the northwest, Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Niger to the northeast. Located in the northernmost tropics of the Atlantic Ocean, the Bay of Benin is part of the Gulf of Guinea and is Benin's largest population cluster. Its official capital is Porto Novo and its government is located in Cotonou, which is both the most populous city and the economic center of Benin. Benin has a land area of 114,763 square kilometres. As a tropical country, Benin is mainly dependent on agriculture and exports cotton and palm oil. Some subsistence agriculture has created jobs and provided a source of income for Benin. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey ruled what we know today as Benin. Due to the transatlantic slave trade, the area is also known as the "Slave Coast". After the slave trade was outlawed, France gained control of the region and renamed it French Dahomey. In 1960, after a 12-year war, Dahomey won independence from France. From 1972 to 1990, Kérékou came to power and announced the name change of name to the People's Republic of Benin. In 1991, the Republic of Benin was established.
In such a presidential representative democratic republic, the president is both the head of state and the head of government. Benin is a multi-party State with both exclusive executive and joint legislative powers. The Benin Constitution, promulgated in 1990, defines Benin's political structure. In April 2021, Patrice Talon was re-elected for his second five-year term. At present, there are 83 members of the Government, which constitute the vast majority of the parliament. In September 2018, the reform of the party system combined party and political activity, which reduced the number of political parties in Benin from 200 to 12. Legislative elections are expected to be held in Benin on 8 January 2023.
2. Economic overview
Since independence, France and a number of other international organizations have provided most of the funding for Benin's regular and development budgets, and the economic stagnation and low standard of living faced by the population have eased. In order to break away from French rule, most of Benin's economic sectors were nationalized or placed under the administration of the Government after the 70s. In the early 80s of the 20th century, it was discovered that although economic restructuring had led to a more efficient and diversified national economy and reduced the share of France in Benin, the country's overall economic situation had not improved. After the 90s, the pillars of its economy remained agriculture, formal and informal re-exports and transit trade with Nigeria. In 2021, Benin's economy has seen a strong recovery, with growth expected to be around 6.6%, driven by services and construction. During the year, inflation in Benin remained around 1.7 per cent, mainly due to rising food prices. Since then, Benin's fiscal deficit (including allocations) as a share of GDP has widened from 4.7% in 2020 to 5.8% in 2021, while Benin's fiscal policy remains expansionary. While the government's overall revenue remained flexible, the response plan implemented during the 2020-2021 period also significantly increased government spending.
3. Education overview
Benin's education system follows the 6+4+3 model, modeled after France. This means that the minimum threshold for further entry into university is 13 years of schooling. Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 11. Primary education lasts six years, and upon completion of primary school, students progress to junior high school for four years. The curriculum during this period is the same as in elementary school, and it is a broad academic program. Upon completion of junior high school, students take the "Initial Academic Test", which is equivalent to an "O" level. In Benin, the entry requirement for upper secondary school is either an O-level certificate or a certificate of study through an initial academic examination. Senior secondary school lasts for three years, and students are required to take the baccalaureate after graduation, which is a prerequisite for entering the university. In addition to this, there are also many students who decide to attend vocational schools, which provide students with skills training in various fields to meet the needs of large cities. Vocational schools adopt dual apprenticeships, replacing theoretical courses with apprenticeship training. Through colleges, universities and research institutes, students in Benin have access to higher education.
In undergraduate, graduate and other research studies, a wide variety of disciplines are open to students. The University of Abomey-Calavi (known as the University of Dahomey from 1970-75 and the National University of Benin from 1975 to 2001), located in Cotonou, was founded in 1970 and since the early 80s of the 20th century, the student body and workers of the university have been the main political force in the country. In 2001, the University of Paracou was founded.
4. Agricultural overview
Benin is an agrarian society, which supports more than 70% of Benin's population, accounting for about 35% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 80% of total export earnings. Cotton is Benin's main cash crop, while cashews, shea, coffee, palm, pineapple and cocoa are also important export crops. With the demand for food production and economic growth increasing rapidly, there is an urgent need for the country to build modern and sustainable agriculture. This means that the best option for Benin is to implement more advanced farming techniques and achieve sustainable agriculture. Benin is a major producer of commercial crops such as cassava, maize, yams, cotton, palm oil and coffee, and accounts for a large proportion of Benin's foreign exchange earnings. Commercial agriculture has played an extremely important role in mitigating economic inflation. The country's main agricultural products include:
4.1 Cotton
As of 2015-2017, Benin's cotton export earnings accounted for more than 80% of total official export earnings and nearly 40% of its GDP. Therefore, Benin's cotton economy is an important part of the country's domestic and international investment plans. The northern region of Benin is the main producer of cottonseed, so this area is also known as the Cotton Belt. In Borgou, almost two-thirds of farmers grow cotton, of which 64 per cent are in the central region of Zu province and 37 per cent in the Atacora region. Compared with these figures, the three districts of southern Benin, Atlética, Mono and Ouémé have a share of only 0 to 25 per cent. Farmers grow cotton on a small scale and sell it to enterprises for lint or cotton by-products such as cottonseeds, cotton cakes, cotton oil, etc.
4.2 Milk fruit
In Benin's Sahel region, farmers harvest shea butter from native uncultivated trees and sell it directly, or make it into shea butter for export, as well as to process food, skin ointments, cosmetics and soaps. Many women's cooperatives are also involved in the large-scale production of shea butter. Shea butter is an alternative to cocoa butter. In addition, shea butter is also the most sought-after confectionery raw material and cosmetic raw material in the world market. There are many shea trees in West Africa, but they only begin to bear fruit after 20 years of growth, reach maturity after 45 years, and produce nuts for up to 200 years. Due to the long time interval between results, the commercialization of shea butter has been unfavored. In some locally arid areas, shea trees can act as shade for other crops.
Sinocog Bolicon and Sonicog Cotonou are Benin's two largest shea processing plants, ranked sixth and seventh in the world respectively. The former can produce 10,000 tons of shea, accounting for 25% of Benin's annual use of shea, while the latter has a capacity of about 5,000 tons, accounting for 20% of the annual use. As a result, Benin is expected to harvest approximately 50,000 tons of shea butter per year and export 35,000 tons per year, while only 100 tons of shea butter is produced for export.
4.3 cashews
Benin is the second largest cashew producer in West Africa. In 1990, the demand for cashew nuts increased significantly, which prompted Benin to propose plans to expand cashew production. As a result, in 2008, Benin's cashew plantations expanded from about 10,000 hectares to more than 190,000 hectares. Benin has produced 300,000 tons of cashew nuts since the start of 2021, according to the data. Of the 116,398 tonnes of cashews exported by Benin, 15% came from cashews from neighbouring countries such as Nigeria, Togo and Burkina Faso. Benin's cashew exports account for about 8% of total exports, 7% of agricultural GDP and 3% of the country's GDP, and pesticides and fertilizers are rarely used on arable land to expand small-scale operations. In Benin, cashew nuts are consumed mainly for celebratory occasions and travel gifts.
4.4 Palm oil
Since the 19th century, in order to meet the demand for soap in Western countries, a large number of oil palm trees have been planted in Benin, and as a result, oil palm has become the main crop in Benin. Oil palm is native to West Africa and grows naturally in swampy areas. For centuries, local people have been using many derivatives of oil palm (e.g. fibre, palm oil, palm sap). Commercial uses focus on pulp oil around the pit (i.e. palm oil) and oil inside the pit (palm kernel oil). In the 19th century, Benin's colonial government launched the first industrialization program for the oil palm industry, investing in a large number of public industrial processing facilities. After independence, the government built more and more advanced facilities. To date, Benin has planted about 500,000 hectares of selected oil palm seedlings.
The current development of the oil palm industry, based on the distribution of selected oil palm saplings and oil palm infrastructure, only benefits new private plantation owners. Because these new growers enjoy privileged access to raw materials, they have more competitive advantages than women small-scale producers on multiple levels, from using mechanized processing technology to reduce prices to increasing the volume of large-scale transactions to attract more retailers, Benin has become a large-scale palm oil production and manufacturing hub. On top of that, Benin's annual palm oil production has increased significantly, from 31,000 tonnes in 1961 to 460,000 tonnes in 2021, an average annual increase of 5%.