World Bank will provide the Republic of Benin a $50 million financing to boost its tourism industry. The facility comes to support the country’s competitiveness and transborder tourism programme led by its National Agency for Tourism Development and heritage promotion (ANPT).

The 5-year programme will mainly help make Ouidah, a town located in the Southern part of the country, a tourism hub by tapping into its geography and history.

According to ANPT’s director, José Pliya, the scheme aims to boost tourism’s contribution to wealth creation in Benin. “Tourism contributes to only 2.6% of our gross domestic product. We want this increased to 6% in the next five years, putting us on the same stand as Senegal,” the official said.

To this end, Benin will reinforce its assets and draw in more tourists from border nations such as Nigeria (Benin’s main market with 12.2% of total number of tourists coming to the country) or Togo (6.2%) as well as those from foreign nations like France.

Benin’s authorities said they will focus on investing in road and hotel infrastructures and in developing local craftsmanship offer for tourists. This is one of the main targets of the government’s action plan (PAG) launched by president Talon in December 2016 to “reveal Benin” to the world.

Aaron Akinocho