A multi-sector Algerian delegation took part in the Benin Deal Room 2026, held from 16 to 18 September in Cotonou, signalling Algiers’ intent to turn its African presence into concrete economic partnerships. Pharmaceuticals, energy, infrastructure and state-owned enterprises were all central to the mission. Yet behind the Beninese opportunity lies a more complex regional equation: how can South-South exchanges be intensified when borders remain closed in the very heart of West Africa? The frontier between Niger and Benin, still shut despite attempts at rapprochement, stands as one of the main paradoxes facing the ambition of a more self-reliant African economic integration.
Cotonou becomes a marketplace for African economic ambitions
For three days, Cotonou turned itself into a trading floor for investors eyeing Benin’s growth prospects. Organised under the auspices of the Beninese government, the Benin Deal Room 2026 brought together institutional investors, development finance institutions, project promoters, strategic companies and public officials around a portfolio of more than twenty projects.
Announced financing needs range between 2 and 3 billion dollars, spanning sectors as varied as agro-industry, manufacturing, infrastructure, logistics and energy. The stated ambition is therefore not that of a simple economic forum: the aim is to bring capital directly into contact with projects deemed mature enough to lead to concrete deals.
It is precisely this logic that gives the Algerian presence its significance. A national multi-sector delegation, including representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, energy and renewables, as well as heads of public groups such as the CEO of Saidal and the head of the Algerian Electricity and Gas Industries Company (SAIEG), a Sonelgaz subsidiary, took part in the proceedings.
For Algiers, the stakes go well beyond protocol. The goal is to identify markets, forge industrial alliances and bring about partnerships capable of establishing Algerian firms durably in West Africa.
From political diplomacy to economic diplomacy
This orientation reflects a significant shift in Algeria’s African policy. After long favouring political, diplomatic and security cooperation, Algiers now seeks to strengthen the economic dimension of its presence on the continent.
The Beninese context is particularly conducive. The country intends to accelerate its industrialisation and leverage its geographic position, notably through the port of Cotonou and the Glo-Djigbé industrial zone, to develop local processing, logistics and regional value chains.
For Algerian companies, this momentum can open outlets in several fields.
Medicines are a first axis. The expertise built up by Algeria’s pharmaceutical industry can find extensions in West Africa through exports and distribution, but also, eventually, local production and technology transfers.
Electricity represents another strategic sector. The know-how of Sonelgaz and its subsidiaries in generation, transmission, distribution and energy solutions can meet the needs of a continent facing a major energy access deficit. Renewables also open a vast field of cooperation, particularly in Sahelian territories where solar power can be a major lever for electrification.
The challenge is thus to move from a classic commercial relationship — selling Algerian products to African customers — to a more ambitious logic: producing, investing, training and transferring skills in Africa.
The Niger paradox: cooperating without moving
But this ambition runs up against a geopolitical reality that goes beyond relations between Algiers and Cotonou.
Niger is today one of Algeria’s strategic partners. The two countries have strengthened their cooperation in security, transport and energy. In June 2026, Algeria notably launched work on its section of the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, a project intended to link Nigeria to Europe via Niger and Algeria.
In August, energy cooperation was further illustrated by the launch, in northern Niger, of drilling work on the Kafra oil block by Sonatrach, in the presence of the Algerian and Nigerien prime ministers. The project is presented as likely to eventually foster road infrastructure, logistics, energy and trade between southern Algeria and the Agadez region.
On the security front, Algiers also went as far as providing military support to Niger in August 2026, at the request of the authorities in Niamey.
And yet, a few hundred kilometres to the west, the border between Niger and Benin remains closed.
This closure, inherited from the crisis triggered by the July 2023 coup, is today one of the main contradictions of regional integration. Talks begun in 2026 between Cotonou and Niamey have produced progress on security, transit and certain economic and legal aspects, but no firm reopening timetable had been confirmed by late September.
For Niamey, security concerns remain central. But the situation carries an economic cost: goods destined for Niger from the port of Cotonou must take alternative routes, with additional delays and expenses.
A closed border at the heart of an integration ambition
The Niger-Benin case therefore raises a fundamental question: can South-South cooperation truly be spoken of without fluid borders, transport and trade?
The paradox is all the more striking because Benin and Niger have an interest in preserving their economic ties. Cotonou has historically been a major maritime outlet for the landlocked countries of the West African hinterland. For Niger, access to Beninese port infrastructure is an important element of its supply.
The border closure thus turns a bilateral problem into a regional issue. It weakens logistics chains, drives up transport costs and reduces companies’ ability to think of their markets on a multi-country scale.
For Algeria, which precisely wants to expand its trade with Africa, this situation is a warning. The geographic diversification of exports cannot be separated from the construction of secure, functional corridors.
Algeria has a major asset: its geographic depth. The development of trans-Saharan axes, the Algiers-Lagos road and the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline can help bring North Africa closer to West Africa. But these infrastructures will only produce their full effect if they are part of a regional environment that allows the regular movement of goods, capital and skills.
Toward a new generation of South-South partnerships
The Algerian presence at the Benin Deal Room 2026 therefore takes on a broader dimension. It reflects a desire to build African cooperation based less on declarations than on identifiable projects, investments and shared economic interests.
This is probably where the real challenge of South-South cooperation lies. It is no longer simply a matter of African countries trading more with one another, but of building African value chains together: producing medicines in Africa, developing electrical equipment in Africa, processing raw materials on the continent, financing African infrastructure and creating African jobs.
Benin wants to attract capital. Algeria is looking for new markets and wants to showcase its industrial capacities. Niger holds considerable energy and mining resources and constitutes a strategic space between North and West Africa. These interests could be complementary.
But economic complementarity requires a precondition: political trust.
The gradual reopening of borders, particularly between Niger and Benin, would in this respect be more than a bilateral gesture. It would send a signal in favour of an Africa capable of moving beyond its political partitions to prioritise its common economic interests.
Algeria at its African crossroads
By taking part in the Cotonou gathering, Algiers appears to have chosen to no longer regard the African market as a simple natural extension of its exports, but as a strategic space for investment and partnership.
The challenge will now be to turn the contacts made in the Deal Rooms into contracts, industrial facilities and sustainable projects.
Benin can be a gateway. Niger can be a strategic corridor. The Sahel can become a space of complementarities. But without movement, without interconnected infrastructure and without political stability, ambitions will remain fragmented.
The message from Cotonou is therefore twofold: Africa now attracts African capital itself; the remaining question is whether borders will become the limits of that new ambition.
