Jean BAKOLE, UNIDO Regional Director, presented his credentials to the Beninese authorities

The Representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to ECOWAS and Regional Director, Jean B. BAKOLE, carried out a work mission to Benin from Wednesday, February 28 to March 3, 2018. The purpose of this mission was to present his credentials to the Beninese authorities, as UNIDO's representative in Benin.

Mr. BAKOLE met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aurelien AGBENONCI, the State Minister for Planning and Development, Abdoulaye BIO  TCHANE, and the Minister of Industry and Trade, Serges AHISSOU. He also met the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Françoise ASSOGBA KOMLAN, the Head of Cooperation, Minister Counselor of the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Benin, Yves GILLET, as well as the United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNS) and UNDP Resident Representative, Mr. Siaka COULIBALY.

With the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean BAKOLE discussed, after the ceremonial ceremony, the cooperation between UNIDO and the Republic of Benin. He officially expressed the interest and availability of UNIDO to support Benin in its vision of development and in the implementation of its strategic plans for economic growth through the sector of industry. According to him, the industrial sector is a plural sector with transversal actions namely: water, energy, agriculture, industrial transformation, etc. "This is why we believe Benin will benefit from UNIDO's many years of experience and expertise in these different areas of the economy," said the Regional Director. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Aurelien AGBENONCI, for his part, said that what matters today for the Government of Benin are "concrete responses to concrete concerns." He said that the country intends to rely on UNIDO expertise to achieve Benin's ambitions contained in the Government's Program of Action (PAG).

With the State Minister for Planning and Development and the Minister of Industry, the Regional Director emphasized industrialization as a source of employments and wealth. "UNIDO can also help, through its expertise, to set up large-scale industrial activities; it can also help collect additional resources through partners, as well as capacity building for SMEs ", he told Beninese authorities. According to the Ministers of the Government, UNIDO's support for the efforts will not be too much. "Today, we want to increase the yield of our products such as pineapple, cashew, rice, corn and go towards industrial processing. So we need UNIDO's expertise to go to this large-scale industrial transformation ", said the State Minister Abdoulaye BIO TCHANE.

Mr. Jean BAKOLE has also finally exchanged with the Head of Cooperation, Minister Counselor of the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Benin, Yves GILLET. He took the opportunity to thank the EU for the funding of the WAQSP which contributes to decisively improving the quality in West Africa, with a stress on the culture of quality.