Benin report - Institut Africain de la Gouvernance

CHAPTER FIVE: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE__________________________________________________________________________are no „success stories‟ that can inspire young entrepreneurs or produce aripple effect in the rest of the economy. The industrial sector (in particular)could subcontract, spin off or partner with competing businesses.607. These weaknesses prompted the government to launch a national developmentprogramme intended to improve the performance of SMEs. This programmewas also intended to prompt the Private Sector Recovery Programme which, in2001, had helped to identify nearly 300 enterprises for which a rehabilitationplan was prepared but which could not be implemented for lack of banksupport.608. The government is also trying to broaden Benin‟s industrial base byprocessing farm produce and giving priority to the needs of the population.Through its decentralisation policy it has developed industrial zones, whichwill serve as centres for local development.609. Finally, competitiveness problems prevent many micro-enterprises in theformal and informal sectors from becoming fully fledged SMEs capable ofimplementing subcontracting or innovative strategies. Apart from the fact thatthey lack support and financial resources – which makes them depend onmicro-credit and the entrepreneur‟s personal funds – these enterprises aredeeply involved in corruption and often lack information and training tosuccessfully do business. As a result, these enterprises choose the easy wayout by copying from each other and all too often substituting economicrationale for a mimetic one.610. The state of infrastructure. Besides power outage problems – which causeturnover losses of about 13.4% – roughly 104 days are needed to connect tothe electricity network, while connection to drinking water supply is alsoinadequate 52 . The country has virtually no organised urban transport system.Although considerable efforts have been made to build major highways, thecountry still suffers from poor road maintenance and a very sparse railnetwork 53 . According to the GPRS report for 2007-2009, some localauthorities, now responsible for road maintenance and management as a resultof decentralisation, have begun to erect tollgates on the existing network inorder to recover part of the maintenance costs.611. On the maritime front, the one-stop service at Cotonou Port is still unable toexpedite formalities as it only pools the forms and papers demanded by thevarious government services and has not really reduced the time for obtainingthem. Thus, customs clearance of imports may take up to 24.4 days.612. Finally, Benin seems to be lagging far behind in ICTs. With the obsoleteequipment of Benin Telecom SA, the number of telephone lines per thousandinhabitants in the biggest city is only 41.6, whereas the average cost of aphone call is among the highest in the region. The number of personalcomputers per thousand inhabitants is only 3.7. It is, therefore, important forBenin to quickly modernise its telecommunication network and extend its52 Two-thirds of the rural population does not have access to drinking water.53 Limited to a single 438 km metric-gauge railway line between Cotonou and Parakou.212