# Bénin Révélé Programme Launched (2016)

URL: https://allhistories.com/benin/timeline/2016-benin-revele-programme-launched
Location: Cotonou, Littoral, Benin
Themes: main-event

Benin's economy depended heavily on cotton exports, re-export trade with Nigeria through the port of Cotonou and an informal sector employing most workers. Infrastructure was poor: power cuts were frequent, many roads unpaved and public administration slow. Talon, a businessman, promised to run the state with the methods of a private company. On 16 December 2016 the government presented the Programme d'actions du gouvernement 2016–2021, branded 'Bénin Révélé' ('Benin Revealed'), with 45 flagship projects worth about 9,039 billion CFA francs (some 15 billion US dollars), to be financed largely through public–private partnerships. Priorities included tourism (Ouidah, Pendjari, the lake city of Ganvié), the modernisation of Cotonou's port (whose management was entrusted to Port of Antwerp International in 2018), roads and urban 'asphaltage', electricity, digital services, agriculture and education. A special economic zone at Glo-Djigbé was later created to process cotton and cashew locally. The programme brought high growth, averaging over 6 per cent a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, improved credit ratings and visible urban transformation. Critics pointed to the demolition of informal markets and housing, the cost of living and the concentration of contracts, and argued that growth did little to reduce poverty in the north. At this point in the timeline (16 December 2016), the President of the Republic of Benin was Patrice Talon (6 April 2016 – 23 May 2021).

## Why it matters
Bénin Révélé set the economic agenda of the Talon era.

Ruler at the Time: [Patrice Talon](https://allhistories.com/benin/rulers/patrice-talon-2016)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Economy of Benin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Benin)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Benin economy](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Benin+economy)
- [Government of Benin — Programme d'actions du gouvernement](https://www.gouv.bj/)
- [World Bank — Benin overview](https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/benin/overview)
- [Wikipedia — The Talon Era (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Talon)