The Board of Directors selects Benin as one of 16 countries eligible for MCC funding in 2005. The Board considered both past and current policy performance of candidate countries in the areas of democratic governance, economic freedom, and investing in the health and education of their people, as well as trends that indicated policy improvements or declines.

Read

The Millennium Challenge Corporation Names MCA Eligible Countries
Press Release

The $307 million Benin Compact focuses on improving access to markets, access to justice, access to financial services, and access to land,  and is expected to directly benefit 100 percent of Benin’s population.

Read

Millennium Challenge Corporation Signs Compact with Benin
Press Release

Entry into force of the Benin Compact signals the beginning of the compact’s implementation phase and five-year program term. Initial stages focus on competitive hiring of staff and preparation of procurements required for compact activities.

The Bid Challenge committee is part of a system designed to ensure transparency and fairness in procedures for the award of contracts to MCA-Benin. The installation of committee members marked the effective start of the system’s activities.

This act, whose passage was promoted by MCA-Benin, formalized guidelines for business and investment in Benin. The act was later reviewed by Benin’s Constitutional Court, voted on again in the National Assembly, and finally signed into law.

This memorandum of understanding enabled MCA-Benin to fully finance land titling operations.

The Access to Markets activity, which includes rehabilitation and construction of the Port of Cotonou, aims to help Benin accelerate its economic growth and to push back the frontiers of poverty. The environmental impact report ensured that the activity maintained respect for the environment and followed best practices in environmental conservation.

The workshop is designed to improve the effectiveness of financial services, and the capacity of the actors in this sector.

Before beginning construction on the Port of Cotonou’s new South Wharf, MCC required the Government of Benin to turn over operation of the new terminal to the private sector. In September 2009, the Government of Benin signs a 25-year concession agreement with Groupement Bolloré, a private sector firm.

The International Finance Corporation advised the Government of Benin on this transaction, which was structured in less than eight months from kickoff to signature—a record-setting performance for the industry.

Groupement Bolloré commits to pay $200 million in fees over the first eight years of operations, and to invest a minimum of $256 million in operating equipment and civil works over the life of the concession. The expected results include creation of more than 450 jobs, increased competitiveness of the Port of Cotonou, doubling of container traffic in the first eight years of operation, and increased opportunities to develop external markets.

In signing its first grant agreements for the Challenge Facility, a microfinance grant fund, MCA-Benin contributes to the expansion of the financial capacity of small and medium-sized companies in Benin. The Challenge Facility is the implementing tool of the Access to Financial Services Project, designed to strengthen, based on competition and through a grant mechanism, the capacity of networks and associations of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), financial institutions and providers of non-financial services to MSMEs.

The Centralized Agency for Business Formalization (GUFE) is endowed with organizational and financial autonomy, and reports to the Ministry for Trade. The new decree and creation of the GUFE reduces the number of steps required for business registration and business activity. MCA-Benin followed up the signing of the decree with outreach to stakeholders in government, business and the legal community.

The first batch of 140 motorbikes are delivered to the first generation of Challenge Facility beneficiaries. The motorbikes will resolve lasting transportation barriers, increasing access to markets and other necessary business services.

The Regional Judges Higher School in Porto-Novo begins hosting a training session for judges, attorneys, registrars and other court officers. The sessions will build professional capacity of judicial personnel. Ninety judges, 60 registrars, 10 attorneys, 6 notaries and 4 ushers will be trained in modules specifically designed for each category of judicial worker . The month-long training sessions are the first in a series of three that will take place every six months.

Most of Benin’s rural population lives below the poverty line and is excluded from the nation’s formal banking system. Improving the microfinance sector will allow the excluded majority to eventually gain access to financial services in order to better finance income-generating activities. From March 4–5, 2010, MCA-Benin organized a workshop on “Specifics in the operation and needs of microfinance institutions” for professionals from Benin’s banks and financial institutions. This workshop is part of a triennial training program for Benin’s banks and financial institutions staff.

MCA-Benin launches waterside and landside improvement construction projects at the Port of Cotonou.

Read

A Tribute to Process: The Port of Cotonou
Blog Entry

Expanding Access to Markets through Benin’s Port of Cotonou
Success Story

A joint ceremony celebrating access to the site, laying of the first-stone, and launch of construction for the Legal Information Center under the Access to Justice Project takes place on April 19, 2010. The lack of access to legal information, case law and court judgments, and other laws and regulations to citizens and legal professionals led to the development of the Legal Information Center. It is the first of its kind in Benin.

Under MCA-Benin’s support to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Monitoring Unit of Decentralized Financial Bodies (CSSFD), 23 Microfinance Inspectors are sworn in at the Court of First Instance in Cotonou. MCA-Benin continued its inspection visits to the CSSFD, provided the Monitoring Unit with required equipment for its operation, and supported training of the new sworn-in officers throughout the compact term.

MCA-Benin, together with the Minister of Justice and the U.S. Ambassador to Benin, conducts the official launch of the construction of four trial courts (in Abomey-Calavi, Allada, Savalou and Pobè) and the Abomey Court of Appeal as part of the compact’s Access to Justice Project.

Read

MCC is Supporting the Rule of Law in Benin and Mali
Blog Entry

This event marks international recognition for Benin for the high quality of its geodetic (land mapping) equipment. Benin is one of few African nations to be admitted into the network.

Read

Putting Technology to Work to Improve Property Rights in Benin
Success Story

Klouékanmè, Bonou and Gogounou are the first three municipalities to receive certified versions of MCA-Benin’s Rural Landholding Plans. The plans detail methods for residents to obtain formal titles to their land. Local and federal government officials, the U.S. Ambassador, MCC, and MCA-Benin participate in ceremonies.

MCA-Benin operationalizes a legal aid fund to assist the most vulnerable in obtaining access to justice, including truck and bus drivers; market vendors; micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; and farmers and agricultural producers. Municipal training and information sessions commence; 1,088 people—25 percent of whom are women—have already benefited from legal assistance.

The Port of Benin implements ASYCUDA ++ software to strengthen its competitiveness through enhanced management of large volumes of goods.

The MCC-funded Center of Arbitration, Mediation and Concialiation will strengthen Benin’s capacity to promote alternative modes of commercial and industrial conflict resolution. At the end of March 2011, 239 groups had utilized the Center.

This ship, commissioned by MCA-Benin, will guide large ships inland to the port and facilitate safe docking.

Four new Courts of First Instance are successfully built at Savalou, Allada, Abomey-Calavi and Pobè, in addition to the Court of Appeal in Abomey. These courts will double the total number of courthouses in the country and will dramatically reduce distance to such institutions for local communities.

MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes travels to Cotonou to celebrate the Benin Compact’s success Government of Benin officials, civil society representatives, business leaders, and program beneficiaries.

Read

MCC Completes Successful Five-Year Compact with Benin
Press Release