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INDEX

1. Overview

2. Strenghts

3. Vulnerabilities

4. Opportunities

5. Threats

6. Final evaluation and twitter analysis

7. Bibliography

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OVERVIEW

Benin, which is a country located in West Africa, has an estimated population of 10.6

million inhabitants. The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government is in

Cotonou, the country's largest city and economic capital.

Regarding the political context, Benin is a presidential representative democratic

republic. The current president is Thomas Boni Yayi. An important fact is that since the

end of the Marxist-Leninist regime in 1989, the country has enjoyed a stable and

peaceful stage.

In regard to Benin’s economy, Real GDP grew by 6.5% in 2014. The main drivers of

Benin’s growth are trade and

agriculture. There has been a

significant growth in the cotton

production over the last years.

Besides, the fiscal policy has been

efficient, and inflation remains

moderate thanks in large part to

low food and oil prices.

If we take a glance at the social

conditions, we will notice how significant efforts are needed to ensure more equity in

the geographical distribution of resources and greater effectiveness and efficiency in

the management of both, education and health sectors Regarding gender inequality,

women remain more vulnerable and continue to suffer from a lack of economic

opportunities. Women are also underrepresented in

high-level decision making positions. According to the

World Bank, POVERTY IS WIDESPREAD IN BENIN, being

the national poverty rate of 36.2% in 2011.

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STRENGHTS

- Benin counts on a Strategic location (sea access point for landlocked countries

- As mentioned above, It is one of most stable democracies in Africa.

- Benin’s level of import cover during 2011-14 is forecast at 5.6 months.

- Significant financial support from donors (ODA, HIPC, MDRI) and good relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

- Benin has relatively low levels of external debt and debt servicing costs

- Prudent monetary policy.

VULNERABILITIES

- Rapidly growing public sector

wage bill and a narrow tax base, with the result being a structural budget deficit and a dependence on donor aid.

- The economy is dependent on agriculture, especially the cotton industry. Narrow export base (dependent on cotton price fluctuation)

- Poor infrastructure networks, and Erratic electricity supply

- Very challenging business environment.

- Shortcomings in governance

(endemic corruption)

- Unequal distribution of resources

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OPPORTUNITIES

- Oil exports in the near future.

- Benin has untapped agricultural

land; the palm oil and cotton oil

industries have potential to

develop.

- Strong mobile banking

opportunities.

- Proximity to the Nigerian market.

 

THREATS

- Crime Threats: The full spectrum

of criminal activity can be found

in Cotonou.

- Terrorism Threats: Due to its

proximity to unstable

neighboring countries and

extremely porous borders, Benin

continues to face regional

threats of transnational terrorism,

organized crime, narcotics

trafficking, and piracy.

- deadly infectious diseases,

unhealthy diet, malnutrition, lack

of access to drinking water, lack

of access to essential health

care

FINAL EVALUATION AND TWITTER ANALYSIS

The aim of this analysis is to compare the data that experts and professional

organizations and institutions currently provide, with the data that most important

Beninese’s communication media offer, to be more specific, La Nation, La Nouvelle

Tribune, Benin24TV, and Benin Newsdesk. After analyzing 50 news related with poverty

from all these media, we can conclude that the actors that play an active role in this

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issue are: Political actors, political and social international organizations, and the local

population. From the analysis we can also conclude that, apparently, the main

indicators of poverty are related to infrastructures, agriculture, services, enterprises,

markets, public sector, women inequality, corruption, income inequality, natural

resources, and education. We can gladly say that most of these indicators coincide

with those considered significant by relevant institutions and cooperatives such as

World Bank or KPMG.

If we take a glance at the economic snapshot elaborated last year by KPMG, we can

see some of the similarities previously mentioned above. On the first hand, the Beninese

economy heavily relies on agriculture, which comprises a 33% share of GDP. A

significant portion of the labor force is active in the cotton sector, which has

experimented a relevant growth in the last years. This improvement is in part due to a

recent government’s control over the sector.

As part of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), Benin is lucky to

have an efficient monetary policy administered by the regional central bank (BCEAO),

which follows a prudent approach. Besides, Beninese authorities work closely with the

World Bank and with the International Monetary Fund. However, although the monetary

policy is effective, Benin maintains quite large fiscal and current account deficit due to

its weak tax administration, vulnerability as

a net importer of food and fuel, poor

fiscal management and a narrow export

base. In addition, the market deterioration

in the budget balance is led by a

symbolic increase in public investment.  

An important fact about Benin is that this country highly relies on its neighbor Nigeria

regarding both, cotton sector and trade. This link is not always positive, since a

slowdown in Nigerian economic growth, which is currently expected, may have a

discouraging effect on Beninese’s economy.

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As we can notice, trade is quite significant in this scenario. The nation’s economic

growth that occurred over the past years has its origin in the increased activity at the

port of Cotonou. However, it is true that import growth of capital goods related to oil

exploration is expected to slow down. Although Benin has a strategically valuable

location, Business environment in Benin is complicated, and there is a severe lack of

adequate transport and electricity generation infrastructure. This cumbersome business

environment along with the high levels of corruption perceived hampers industry.

Referring to the re-export sector, it remains of major importance to Benin, due to its

privileged location, as previously mentioned. However, if corruption at the port of

Cotonou and poor infrastructure are not addressed further, higher levels of re-export

benefits will not be reaped.

Up to now we have mostly focused on economic issues, but there are other indicators

that need to be taken into account to understand poverty in Benin. One of them is

Gender Inequality. Taking some data from the RMDH we observe that the factor that

mostly contributes to the increase in gender inequality is the bad maternal health

conditions. The mortality rates and fertility rates are quite high in adolescents. This

situation is especially detrimental for girl’s health and development, since early

pregnancy has a huge cost of opportunity: it prevents them from going to school, and

confine them in sectors of

unskilled labor.

In Benin there are big

inequalities between the

poor and the rich. A we

said, the poverty

headcount ratio,

according to the World

Bank, lies on 36,2%. These percentage of the population lives below the poverty line.

There are significant differences between the North, populated by different ethnic

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groups, and the South, where the major cities of the countries (such as Cotonou) are

located. The big majority of Benin’s population live in the South, where there exist a

young population that have a life expectancy of 50 years. Spread around the country

there are about 42 African ethnic groups.

The last indicator that I want

to point out in this report is

education. The literacy rate in

Benin is one of the lowest in

the world (55.2% for men and

30.3% for women in 2010). It

makes sense that this data

explains in part the

widespread poverty of the

country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

UNDP. Rapport national sur le developpement humain 2010-2011 Sécurité Humaine et

Développement Humain au Bénin

KPMG (2015) Benin. Economic snapshot 2015 quarter 2

World Bank Group from http://www.worldbank.org/

IMF. Benin from http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm