Benin’s prowess in debt management is once again recognized and praised. After obtaining the award for best public debt manager in 2019, Benin is once again cited as an example for the quality of its debt management, which respects international standards in this area. In fact, during the second quarter of 2020, the World Bank updated its platform for monitoring transparency in debt management and established Benin as the first among the 76 countries eligible for funding from the International Debt Management Agency. IDA development of the World Bank group.

Under the impulse of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Patrice TALON, Benin resolutely committed to better management of public debt. This commitment has resulted in the continuous improvement of timely production and dissemination of public debt data, recognized as part of the evaluation on the transparency of the management of public debt by the World Bank.

Evaluation transparency of public debt management, updated on a semester covers three main dimensions:

1. debt statistics dissemination practices public;
2. publication of the main documents relating to debt management;
3. identification of fiscal risks arising from contingent liabilities.

These 3 dimensions are broken down into 9 indicators namely: (

1. accessibility of data;
2. Debt instruments;
3. scope of debt coverage;
4. accessibility of information on new commitments;
5. periodicity of publication of data;
6. data publication schedule;
7. publication of a debt strategy;
8. availability of an annual debt plan;
9. availability of information on liabilities contingents.

Our country was awarded the ” maximum ” score for 7 of the 9 indicators.

This new distinction crowns Benin’s efforts to maintain and strengthen good practices and international standards in all areas of public management and more particularly in terms of debt management public. This confirms the conclusions of the IMF, which praised the good management of public debt by Benin during the 6 reviews of the three-year program 2017-2020 under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). It is also the result of the economic reforms and structural transformations undertaken by the Government under the leadership of His Excellency President Patrice Heel.

Done in Cotonou on the 11th august 2020

The Ministry of Economy and Finance

Please find below screenshots of IDA country debt data transparency assessment.