Benin scraps visa requirements for Chinese tourists, investors

Benin’s President Patrice Talon has abolished entry visa for Chinese investors and tourists wishing to visit the West African country, his office has announced on September 3.

“Benin is opening up fully to China, to create a more solid bridge of cooperation that will benefit both countries, as well as to capture a share of the tourist windfall from China, whose nationals account for a large proportion of the tourist contingents”, the office added in a statement.

The decision was made during the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS). Talon travelled to China last week in the context of 50 years of relations between the two countries and to take part in the Fair.

Benin’s leader held talks with Xi Jinping. Both signed a package of bilateral cooperation documents on deepening cooperation on the Belt and Road, green development, digital economy, agriculture, food, and healthcare. Talon also announced that any Chinese company that chooses to invest in Benin will get a joint Chinese-Benin state investment.

The move, he added, will facilitate “massive” jobs creation and go a long way to alleviate poverty.

The African leader argued during the visit to the CIFTIS that the technological partnership with China will turn Benin into a “world-class logistics center”, and emphasized that the nation’s ambition is to become an industrial Center for processing agricultural products. Trade volume between the two countries according to Talon hit $2 billion in 2022, an increase by more than 30 percent year-on-year.