Benin

Notifications, offers and paper invoices can easily “disappear” or be manipulated. Digital recording and filing of central management processes, especially in procurement, promotes transparency and proof of proper use of the funds in public administration. In addition, administrative processes become faster and waiting times are reduced.

Smart Government – digitalisation as the basis for good governance and economic transformation – is therefore a central pillar of the Benin government programme. KfW Development Bank finances the development of an IT network between ministries and authorities at the national level, as well as between municipalities and decentralised state bodies. Support will also be given to equipping a national data centre.Here, at the core of the national IT network, all data and applications are secured and provisioned on servers.

Digital availability of data also facilitates the work of the national municipal development fund, Fund d'Appui au Développement des Communes. The use of funds and the quality of municipal investments are monitored through annual audits. The fund is co-financed by KfW Development Bank together with other donors. This has significantly helped to improve the population’s access to basic services.

Whether it’s street trading, transport, repairs, production and sale of self-made products and services, nine out of ten employees in Benin work across almost all economic sectors in the informal sector, a legal informal economy that is not registered or controlled by the state. There is a lack of well-trained specialists and experts across the field, in the informal and formal sectors, including in the area of digitalisation.

The Benin government is therefore driving forward the reform of the education sector. It is making considerable efforts to improve vocational training offerings in terms of numbers and, above all, quality. The government is also developing a sustainable financing instrument for the vocational education and training system. KfW Development Bank is involved in this development on behalf of the German Federal Government.

To support the labour market to invest in more growth and hence create more job opportunities, KfW is helping the cooperative umbrella association Faîtière des Caisses d'Epargne et de Crédit Agricole Mutuel (FECECAM) to expand its loan portfolio in rural areas. Yet it also provides funds to the Fonds National de Développement Agricole (FNDA) to support the growth of the private sector in rural areas and, in particular, in the agricultural sector. Both projects complement each other because KfW provides a wide range of funding instruments – loans, guarantees, subsidies – which can be used to reach very different loan customers.

With a total area covering approximately 30,000 square kilometres, the W, Arly and Pendjari National Parks form a unique network of protected areas in the West African savannah region. The parks in the border triangle area in northern Benin stretch across the northern Benin border to Burkina Faso and Niger, and house the region’s most important wildlife populations. The cross-border association of protected areas is therefore also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In order to preserve this unique natural diversity, KfW has founded the environmental charitable trust Fondation des Savanes Ouest Africaines (FSOA). This provides the park operator African Parcs Network (APN) with grants that are generated from interest income from the charitable trust’s capital. The grants finance investments for the management and maintenance of the parks. These measures also indirectly promote tourism.

Access to clean drinking water is a top priority for the Benin government. The aim of KfW Development Bank’s water programme in Benin is therefore to provide sufficient, high-quality drinking water in the long term. To achieve this, KfW has in recent years successfully promoted central supply systems in larger villages and hand pump wells in rural regions.

Today, the investments KfW finances are concentrated in rapidly growing suburban areas in the Cotonou metropolitan area and neighbouring population centres. This promotes the production and distribution of drinking water for an additional 540,000 people.

KfW is also financing the construction of a septic sludge treatment plant in the Abomey-Calavi municipality. This will improve the hygiene of 300,000 people and protect the sea and Lac Nokoué from contamination.