Economy and Finance: Minister Romuald WADAGNI explains the latest performances recorded by Benin - Site officiel du Ministère de l’Économie et des Finances du Bénin : Site officiel du Ministère de l’Économie et des Finances du Bénin

The Yellow River room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation served as a framework this Friday, July 10, 2020, to a press conference hosted by the Minister of Economy and Finance Romuald Wadagni. The objective of this outing is to re-specify and explain the implications of the latest performances achieved by the Beninese economy.

It is thanks to the vision of the Head of State Patrice Talon declined in the Government’s Action Program (PAG) that the economy Beninese is doing these feats. At the sub-regional and international levels, the economic governance commands respect. According to the treasurer, it is the fruit of the combined effort of all Beninese

In the ECOWAS community space, Benin is classified as the first country respecting the principles and rules of free trade, movement of people and goods. The relevance of financial reforms initiated by Romuald Wadagni under the leadership of Patrice Talon, for no only, build and consolidate the conditions for effective implementation implementation of public policies but also, strengthen dialogue mechanisms and access to financial information for citizens is recognized at the global. The results of the International Budget Partnership (IBP) survey of 2019, partner rating institution of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, rank Benin first among countries from Francophone Africa in terms of budget transparency.

Benin was the first country in Africa to make a bond issue in Euro. Most African countries, and the rest of the world, make their bonds in dollars, because the market dollar is the market that offers more money to raise. And so in order not to take risks, all go on the dollar market. But in Benin, the Chef of the State wished that in the desire to control risks, that the transaction is carried out in Euro (Eurobond). It was a success with a rate of 250% subscription. A feat that has been praised by many financial institutions including the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This which means that Benin keeps a credibility in the arcana of finances international. The reprofiling operation of the debt made by the government with partners in this case large insurance companies in 2019, conferred notoriety on Benin on the domestic market and international. Having guaranteed its loans, Benin began to raise funds to replace debt expensive by much longer and cheaper debt. Moreover, at last Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, Benin was distinguished for its good management of sovereign public debt.

For Minister Romuald WADAGNI, today, in terms of global, when large institutions international financial institutions seek to take models in Africa, they think of Benin. This is how that we can explain the fact that under the impetus of Germany and the Union European, the G20 launched the Compact with Africa (CwA) initiative which made Benin the very first country selected for participate. CwA is an initiative which aims to support the State in making reforms in order to expand the fabric of private sector and attract foreign investment. Subsequently, the United Nations, in partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have decided to choose five (05) countries worldwide to participate in the Costing initiative which also relates to the evaluation of the cost of the SDGs. The also, Benin was chosen with the Rwanda as the only two countries in Africa.

Benin including the Minister of Economy and Finance holds the palm for best finance awarded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) during its annual meetings wants to touch the glowing economies of the continent.

Benin country of middle income …

In 2019, due to economic reforms, Benin records the first improvement in its score since 2008 after the evaluation of the Policies and national institutions (CPIA) organized by the World Bank.

The Beninese economy shows a certain resilience. Romuald Wadagni recognized the need to come to terms with Nigeria, which remains a big market. Hence the efforts of the Beninese government for standardization trade between the two brother countries. But despite the shocks exogenous from Nigeria (devaluation of the Naira, closure of borders), the Benin continues to hold out. Which was not obvious years ago. With a the highest economic growth in the WAEMU, financial ratings by independent agencies and the IMF, the performance of the Beninese economy under Patrice Talon is no longer to be demonstrated. Besides with the health crisis linked to Covid-19, several countries saw their financial rating downgraded but the Benin rated by Standard & Poor’s, Bloomfield… has kept its positions.

Public finance consolidation and mobilization resources inevitably induce an increase in national wealth. This is what led to the rebasing of the national accounts, an operation of reassessment of macroeconomic aggregates taking into account new sources of wealth. An operation that is not unprecedented in finance international. In Africa, several countries such as Nigeria, South Africa etc do.

On July 1, 2020, in its latest ranking, the World Bank raised Benin to the rank of middle-income countries, while the country was until then in the low-income country category. This ranking opens new opportunities in a country where the vulnerability of citizens to poverty is very low. Moreover, the United Nations in its ranking of the human development (HDI) confirm this with the position of Benin, first of UEMOA.

For Romuald Wadagni “it is the success of all of us because we had all contributed to working in a synchronized manner under the direction of the Head of State to have these convincing and laudatory results to contribute. Benin will reveal itself to the world and that is what is happening. “

Amèdé MAHOUTONKPE

Remarks by the Minister of the Economy and Finance

Since December 2016 where the President of the Republic presented its Government Action Program, Program which he called “Bénin Révélé”, you all note with me that Benin never ceases to reveal itself, reveal ourselves to ourselves, reveal ourselves to the sub-region, reveal ourselves to Africa and whole world. Performance on the economic plan, confirms this state of affairs.

First I would like to start with the Benin in the WAEMU. You have noted as I have that the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP) ranked Benin at the top of performance with regard to the Human Development Index (HDI). You know, it’s this index which is assessed each year by the UNDP which assesses the quality of care, the life experience of the population, but also the quality and access to education for the populations. And I like to start with this clue because that generally when we speak of a macroeconomic aggregate, we say to ourselves that figures. But I took this example to start my remarks to show that, numbers are needed to show that the prosperity and well-being of populations follow. And therefore, within the UEMOA, the UNDP in its report, classified us in 2018 and 2019 as the top performer on the Development Index Human. The latest report of the UEMOA Commission also presented the Benin as the country with the strongest performance in terms of reforms and internalization of Community directives and standards. The notation obtained in the last report of the UEMOA Commission has never been obtained since the existence of this union therefore for more than 40 years. When we goes a little further at the level of ECOWAS, in the same way the last one ECOWAS Commission report indicates Benin is the only country that has effectively implemented the principles and rules of free trade and movement of people and goods. It had never happened before.

We go out a little further, when we look at all the French-speaking countries of Africa, Benin has been noted still in respect of 2019 as number 01 in terms of transparency budgetary; rating carried out in partnership with institutions independent international organizations funded by the European Union. So you see that in all French-speaking countries, Benin is recognized for the quality of its public finance management and in particular transparency in the budget management.

A little further in Africa, the Benin was the first country to issue a Euro bond bond issue . Most countries in Africa and even outside Africa, when they are doing their first bond issue, they usually do so in dollars. Because the dollar market, it is the deepest market, it is the market that offers much more money to raise and therefore not to take risks, usually we go on this wallet. But the Head of State wished with the willingness to control the risks we take, that we do the operation in Euro. We organized ourselves to do this operation by Euro. Several of the specialists here and there told us that this operation was not going to succeed and you yourselves saw the great success that this operation which obtained a subscription rate of more than 250% with the congratulations from several international institutions including the Fund International Monetary (IMF).

For the first time, Benin is something that no one has achieved in Africa before. Of course during of the last Annual General Meeting of the African Bank of development (BAD), Benin for the first time in its history obtained the Prize for the best Minister of Finance.

When we leave Africa and we positions at the global level, we see that more and more, when the large international institutions seek to take models in Africa, we think of Benin. Thus, under the leadership of Germany, the Union European Union and the G20 have launched the Compact with Africa (CwA) initiative. The Benin was one of the very first countries to be selected to participate in this initiative. Initiative which aims to support States in carrying out reforms in with a view to expanding the fabric of the private sector and attracting investment foreigners. In the past, we would not even have thought of Benin to launch such initiatives.

Likewise, the United Nations in partnership with the Fund International Monetary, when they decided to choose globally five (05) countries for the Swiss initiative called Costing (the evaluation of cost of the SDGs), Benin was chosen with Rwanda as the only two countries from Africa. In Latin America, Guatemala was selected and in level of Asia, Indonesia and Vietnam were retained. So you see when the IMF and the United Nations, the big institutions sit down to launch the pilot projects, and when they want to choose 5 countries at the level worldwide, Benin is chosen among the two to represent Africa.

For the first time in our history, last year, those who know the World Bank, those who go to the World Bank website have noted that for several days, it was posted the reprofiling operation that Benin carried out. We carried out a unique reprofiling operation in partnership with the Bank world, the ATI ACA agency based in Nairobi and a hen of about twenty London-based insurance companies, most of whom have never heard of Benin; who have come together to help us make this fundraising operation to replace expensive debt with much longer and cheaper debt. And the World Bank hailed this operation that has been featured on its site for several days. Better, this operation was considered by the World Bank and institutions international as the best financial transaction of the year 2018. In the same vein always at the global level, during the last assemblies World Bank annuals in Washington, Benin won the prize for better debt management in sub-Saharan Africa. So these are great examples, still successful things that have not been achieved until then.

I would now like to dwell on the three big news we got the last three weeks.

– The first is the fact that at the 1st July 2020, in its latest ranking, the World Bank ranked now Benin as a middle income country. Until then we were in the low-income country category. Which is historic since we leave behind us, a whole group of countries that some consider until then as models for Benin.

– Second recent news is the fact that the World Bank also released its CPIA index. This is a index that measures the quality of economic governance. When we look at the performances we did on this index, for the first time since 2008, we made progress. We have had the second best performance in Africa in the management of Public finances, which is also great news.

– The third latest news recent, it is the fact that the rating agencies, all those which we note with Standard & Poor’s in mind, we have maintained our rating in a context where most countries are degraded. So when in period crisis, most countries are degraded but you have considered yourself as a sufficiently solid economy with fundamentals capable of holding during the crisis, I think that too is very good news that he must be celebrated.

I would like everyone to remember two things :

The first is that all these performances would not have been possible without everyone’s work. Because we can’t have them from as sustainable for 3 years, if behind, it is not an action synchronized, collective action, which is part of an Action Program government clear.

The second thing is that in the history of Benin, we can say that it is the same Beninese but why today we are doing things that no one has ever done in Africa. We make charts, we are at the top of charts where we have never been cited. It should therefore be remembered that since 2016, we have had a Head of State who has displayed an ambition, objectives, a government action program, which mobilizes the entire population, the entire government, works fiercely, in discipline, with seriousness, so that we give these results there. And it’s important to point this out because when you don’t know not why you got the results, you can’t make them last you cannot perpetuate them.

It is the success of all of us because we had all contributed to work in a synchronized manner under the direction of the Head of State to have these convincing and laudatory results to contribute. The Benin is going to reveal itself to the world and that is what is happening.

Thank you.

Remarks by the Minister of the Economy and Finance

First I would like to start with the Benin in the WAEMU. You have noted as I have that the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP) ranked Benin at the top of performance in terms of of the Human Development Index (HDI). You know, it’s that clue that’s appreciated each year by the UNDP which assesses the quality of care, the experience life of the population, but also the quality of and access to education for populations. And I like to start with this clue because usually when we talking about a macroeconomic aggregate, we say to ourselves, these are figures. But I took this example to start my remarks to show that, we need numbers to show that the prosperity and well-being of populations follow. And therefore, within the UEMOA, the UNDP in its report, classified us in 2018 and in 2019 as the top performer on the Human Development Index. The latest report of the UEMOA Commission also presented Benin as the country with the strongest reform performance and internalization of community directives and standards. The rating obtained in the last report of the UEMOA Commission has never been obtained since the existence of this union therefore for more than 40 years. When we go a little more far at the ECOWAS level, in the same way the last report of the ECOWAS Commission indicates Benin is the only country that has actually implemented the principles and rules of free trade and movement of people and goods. It had never happened before.

For the first time in our history, last year, those who know the World Bank, those who go to the World Bank website have noted that for several days, it was posted the reprofiling operation that Benin carried out. We carried out a unique reprofiling operation in partnership with the Bank world, the ATI ACA agency based in Nairobi and a hen of about twenty London-based insurance companies, most of whom have never heard of Benin; who have come together to help us make this fundraising operation to replace expensive debt with much longer and cheaper debt. And the World Bank hailed this operation that has been featured on its site for several days. Better, this operation was considered by the World Bank and institutions international as the best financial transaction of the year 2018. In the same vein always at the global level, during the last assemblies World Bank annuals in Washington, Benin won the prize for better debt management in sub-Saharan Africa. So it’s beautiful examples, more successful things that have not been achieved until then.

I would now like to dwell on the three big news we got the last three weeks.

I would like everyone to remember two things :

The second thing is that in the story from Benin, we can say that it is the same Beninese but why today we are doing things that nobody has ever done in Africa. We do charts, we are at the top of charts where we have never been cited. He It should therefore be remembered that since 2016, we have had a Head of State who has posted an ambition, objectives, a government action program, which mobilizes the entire population, the entire government, works fiercely, in discipline, with seriousness, so that we give these results there. And it’s important to point this out because when you don’t know not why you got the results, you can’t make them last you cannot perpetuate them.

Thank you.

Questions answers

Journalist 1:

* The theme “Benin classified as middle income” doesn’t that may not result in the reduction of our country to access to concessional financing?

* I am amazed the last time to learn that the government has despite the impacts negative of the Covid-19, bought or fixed or renew the prices in terms of cotton campaign, the old prices were renewed while in the sub-region, some countries having purchased it income at lower prices. What is the gris-gris under Talon to achieve this miracle? And this pushes me directly to say or ask to give me some examples about the reforms who have really paid off in the agricultural sector.

Journalist 2: For almost a year, Nigeria has closed its borders, which has tell a lot of compatriots that it will be difficult to survive. It is true that for a long time, it is believed that without Nigeria the Beninese economy is cold. A year later you have shown a number of performances. Tell us, concretely can you say today that the Can Benin live without Nigeria? Second question, I would like to talk of the different classifications, I come back to the Standard & Poor’s and the rating B + has been maintained for Benin while other countries and not the least tumbled in particular because of the coronavirus crisis. The question we arises, if not prefabricated clues? Does Benin is not in a system where he manages to attract more condescension from these clues?

MEF: The World Bank, which over the past three years had granted Benin a financing of 480 million dollars, this time grants us 627 millions of dollars. Much more, with half, more than 327 million in donations. This is the first way to answer, to say no concretely the fact for Benin to move from the low-income country category to intermediary, is not a handicap to access financing. Since the World Bank even that makes this classification, the day it does it, we gives much more and allocates us for the next three years, more than 300 million donation. Second way to answer this question, you know when you take institutions like the World Bank, the IDB or the ADB, I will take the AfDB to lead by example. There are several counters. When you are a low-income country you have access to a window called the ADB level “ADF window”. It is a counter that generally covers modest sized projects. And when you are a country of income intermediary, not only do you continue to benefit from the ADF ”and you now have access to the“ ADB window ”. I you learn that in the sub-region, going from low to low income intermediary, we join Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, which today at the ADB level benefit both from the “window ADF ”the window intended for weak countries, but also the“ window ADB ”. We keep everything we have intact and we have access to complementary. Second way of explaining that there are no worries to have. If you ever decide to make a donation, you have in your wallet a 100 franc coin and a 1000 franc note, you decide to do that day, because you are celebrating your birthday or I don’t know what, you want to give. You come out of your house, you see a gentleman sitting on the floor, poorly dressed and pronouncing the following sentence: “I have nothing to eat, help me give me something to eat”, I bet that you will give him the 100-franc piece. You go home and you come out, you see a clean gentleman who approaches you and says “Sir I really have nothing, help me, give me something to eat”. I bet that, to him, you will give him 1000 francs, because you will judge that to give him 100 francs would be insulted at the limit. And that’s what he is. You see when I bring it back to yourself, it speaks to you, when I bring it back to the other institutions, it speaks to you and when I bring it back to the World Bank, we have the demonstration that no, what has just been done and who is historical opens the field to the acceleration of the development of Benin. We will not only continue to have access to concessional financing but we will be able to increase the volume of this funding already available and therefore accelerate the work for prosperity for all population.

Second question you had was to say that finally Benin maintains the price of agricultural products while several countries in the pricing have lowered prices. It was a strong concern of the President of the Republic to say that it is a way for us to support our operators, our producers in the sector agricultural. This is to ensure that the sudden drop in product prices at international level does not affect their purchasing power, and therefore demotivates their want to continue producing. If we want the cotton which represents 1/3 of our production today continues, it was absolutely necessary to ensure that that support for the agricultural sector continues and that these indices, these prices are maintained. So this is an action that is in perfect consistency with our plan for the agricultural sector. It was noted that in systems or whenever there are structural variations in nature, if you, you systematically have this reflected on the standard of living of operator you will notice that in fact there will be variations as well in productivity since, suddenly the sector becomes attractive, suddenly it is less. It is therefore to avoid this element that the government in all responsibility made this choice which is therefore in total coherence with the actions and the reforms we are making in the sector.

On Nigeria, this is a question to which I had the opportunity to talk to you, the question is whether Benin can to live without Nigeria, the answer is no. We are in a globalized world and no one can claim today I can live without the other. We are neighboring countries, we have interdependence. Our strategy is clear, our plan is to work in synergy in good understanding with the Nigeria. We have strengths that can benefit Nigeria. He has strengths that can benefit us. It must be recognized that for a long time, the ease prevailed. That is to say only buy and sell or serve transit for Nigeria. These elements, as soon as there is a blow or a shock, we see that these types of activities suffer. And so we are in discussion with Nigeria. He is in discussion with us, engaged in a partnership that makes us be together. And so no one can pretend, and so nobody can say, I can do without my neighbor, especially since we have such porous borders, we have communities, populations that speak the same language, who have the same cultures, so we cannot say it. Concretely you see that today this is what we are trying to do, when we launch plans for the development, transformation of our agricultural products, it is to be able to serve Nigeria more. We aim within three years to exceed one million tonnes of rice and these production, most will go to Nigeria. What can we produce here, transform and exchange with our brothers in Nigeria, and also what do they have as an asset that we can benefit from, that’s what he is.

Then there is a question that says yes yes, Benin maintains its rating, is it not prefabricated indices. I have two ways of responding to this. Hypothesis n ° 1, it is about prices hacked manufactured. If it’s so easy to tweak the numbers, convince the international monetary fund, the World Bank, the European Union, ADB and all the whole earth which in a synchronized way, in a coherent way since 3 years, the charts multiply, well it is that somewhere there is a genius. So there, in this case why this genius has not been implemented since? When this genius makes that there the 1^er July we give you 627 million of dollars, to support your development … second way of answering that is to say, you know when you start to perform you create what is called “spotining”, that is to say, we look at you in detail, we script whatever you do. And I remind you that the Monetary Fund International was still there last April and I can tell you when you are in the program, and they put their stamp, it is that, there is a severe control which is made. You remind me of the rating of the international monetary fund. The Benin over the last 3 years, we have undergone 06 monetary fund checks international and we have consistently obtained a very high satisfactory, which is the highest rating and which is the rating ever given to a country in Africa. If you’re messing around and you have this, then hats off. Because I teach you that when the International Monetary Fund arrives, they not only speak to all administrations, they speak to institutions and seek information from the private sector. It means that it is not only the government that is messing around, but you also you hack, the private sector hack and everyone hack but in a synchronized way. So well done. I am amazed, no, let’s be seriously no. I think this as I said earlier is the fruit of collective work. It is precisely because each of the sectors activities is doing its reforms, doing its work, that all this fits well in the government’s action program, that’s why we have these results. Now you have to be proud of this, that we continue because it does not we must not let go. That’s what I said, when you start to be quoted, you only shoot ripe fruit, right? So all the world is watching us, we have no right to give up, we must continue the effort because we see every day that things change. We are talking of the Covid19 pandemic, everyone says that benign has more of a management of the pandemic, compared to others and given the magnitude of the disease. When today someone falls ill, it is the state that takes the full costs, we have brigades that pass through the houses, who bring medicines, who bring people in care. Zero cost for the taxpayer. It is thanks to these efforts that you benefit from this. On time where I am talking to you, we are in the process of setting up in Natitingou, a patient care. Investments of several billion, but that is the fruit of our efforts. So this is the materialization of these awards, etc…. So if it was hacked there wouldn’t have been anything concrete behind, there is something concrete.

Reporter 3: These elements that now allow rating agencies to give positive points to our country, since the evaluation is annual, do you give us the assurance that the years that will follow Benin will continue to register this positive margin there and the very last question is in relation to the gesture made by the government towards people affected by restrictive measures linked to the Coronavirus pandemic, the beneficiaries for most of them have entered what was promised, which today realize that the government kept their word, some of whom were victims of the same situation, who could not register, was there a second chance for these people?
Journalist 4: The charm that emanates from the aggregates at the level of the economy of our country, pushes some of your compatriots, to wonder if there is not a dose of make-up. You said there was no border. Tell them if there was at least some kind of face of our economy in the plan global. My second concern is to know today what is the poverty vulnerability threshold of Beninese or Beninese.

MEF : When we look, we assess the wealth production of a country, in fact, it is the sum of the added values of each of the economic players. So, cartoonishly it is the sum of everything that each produces at the country level. It is evaluated in reference to a given level. To visualize it, I give the example of someone who has a farm, a banana plantation.

He has a plantation with 100 banana trees on it. We are in the 2010s. At the end of 2010, he knows that he has 100 bananas and that for 2010, each banana tree has produced 5 bunches of bananas, which they can sell to a certain price given. During 2010, that year where he counted the number of bananas and evaluated the production, he said to himself that how much he produced for this year. We will say that 2010 becomes its reference year for this operator. The following year, to assess what each is doing, what each has product, we do not go back to evaluate individually, that is the standards at world level otherwise we wouldn’t do it it takes months to do these evaluations. So the following year, we evaluate by reference and the other years also with reference to the year 2010 in my example. So 2011, 2012, let’s say ok … 2012 for example, given the rainfall, such element etc … Finally a banana tree, it did not produce 5 bunches but rather 4 or 6. In according to this we extrapolate to the 100 banana trees which were counted in 2010. And so in 2012, imagine that we are told that each banana tree produced 10 regimes, we will say for this operator, in 2012 he had 6 regimes times 100 regimes of bananas, at the price and we take out a value of its production, okay. But imagine that in 2010 and 2012 he planted other bananas. In the macro model, we does not take into account all that he produced in addition, we stay on the year of reference, we remain on the estimation, the identification of the production of this reference year and we make approximations, estimates over time. So good practice at the international level is to say that, this reference year, the more you move away from this year, the less accurate. The further you move away from this reference year, less what you give as a number is correct. Because, all that is new activity, new factor of production, inevitably you put them side and worse, even the old factors of production, it is possible that if they have decreased in performance or that technological evolution has caused more productivity, you may misjudge them. It is recommended that 01 times every 05 years, we change the reference year and that we redo a basic exercise. This is rebasing. Relining is the fact of re-estimating the factors of production and of changing this year of based. There are other factors, but I’ll keep it simple. In our case, imagine that this operator since 2010 in 2020 he decides to recount. He says : hold my banana tree; a banana tree makes shoots, it makes others shoots of other bananas, I have more than 100 but I have 130, and each banana tree has 06 bunches and it counts and we now see that its production is no longer the 500 regimes but it’s more like 800. However, is the 800 regimes of bananas? We are in macroeconomics and there are methods which are globally recognized. I tell you that in Benin, we did the choice, when we have done our relining exercise, to support ourselves on a structure called AFRISTAT, a structure which is based in Abidjan but also on the international monetary fund directly. So our numbers have been reviewed, revised by experts from several countries. And so when you do all that and afterwards, behind we comment … You know you can’t not stop people from thinking what they want. I teach you that our the reference year now used is 2015. The year that served as the basis to assess what everything we produced, it was 2007. So in 2020 we were at 13 years old. However, good practices say every 05 years. And as we have started this exercise in 2019, it was necessary to take a reference year. The base year must be a year for which data statistics exist. In 2015, we did a large survey of households, we have a number of data that exist and it was the year for which we can find the data necessary to make this work. And that’s why we took 2015. And therefore, the fact that we took 2015, it is justified, the fact of changing the reference year, it is justifies, it is to get into the good methods. You know about 05 last years we have Senegal which has done the same rebasing exercise many times Nigeria you know the last decade the industry Nollywood Cinematic and All Nigeria Films have grown. It becomes a million dollar factory. And the old reference did not integrate not the activity of the cinema. And so when we evaluated we put aside all this activity in Nigeria. But when Nigeria reassessed the factors of production, has redone its relining exercise, Nigeria has increased 60% of its GDP and has become Africa’s largest economy. It does not mean that this is not true but it means that when you compare yourself to a year which is too far away and other things have happened, the evolution of new technologies, mobile money, sectors, everything that is Data, everything that happened in the digital economy was not taken into account in many countries. And so all countries are doing the same exercise. All the countries to which we compare ourselves, whether it is Senegal, the Coast ivory … all these countries have done this exercise several times, we have done this only once in years.

I would like to follow up with the question on the support for artisans and operators who provide services. The government announced that support would be given, a website was created and a whole protocol followed. You said earlier that there are people who didn’t believe what the government said and who now come and say they didn’t know it was true. These grievances, we are going to bring them to the government level, because every Beninese has the right to government protection. So it will be a subject that will be brought to the government therefore that will be debated. But it allows me to recall a number of things, a while ago I told you, that one of the factors of our success it is synchronized work in the discipline. So when we don’t respect the rules, when you don’t follow the recommendations, it doesn’t work. When we decided to provide support to artisans, whether tokpa-tokpa, seamstresses, etc … Restaurants, bar keepers, we have classified the people, we said we want to cover everyone including people who evolve in the informal, people who do not even exist legal, who have not even taken authorization but who exercise, who have not not even IFU number, which do not pay tax, we want to cover everything the world. The question is how much to give each. On the website, everyone declares their losses. At the end of the registration period, we have categorizes people into multiple categories, including people who are formal and people who are informal.

The people who are formal are the people who have an IFU, who have an existence vis-à-vis the tax and who pay tax. The government decided that for these people, we had more than 5000, around 5000, that the state was going to give them 100% of the losses, the state was going to compensate them for 100% of the losses. So all these actors who are registered and paying taxes, and who as a result of Covid-19, have suffered losses, the state was going to give them 100% of the loss. We realized that when we started to use the results, what did we notice: that 90% of those 5,000 people who are formal, who pay taxes, pay the minimum tax of 10,000f and the tax corresponding to someone who declares and which makes less than 1,000,000 turnover per year. When we look at the loss declarations, the average states that they lost 05 million per months and we were ready to clear the 05 million per month. The instructions from the head of state were clear. All the people who are in the formal, the government was going to provide them assistance at the level of the real amount. Put yourself in the shoes of the government, put yourself in the shoes of the State which wants to support citizens, economic operators. And you you find yourself in front of someone who says to the same administration: “Oh me I make less than a million turnover per year and I pay 10,000 francs and I make 05 million; 10 million profit ”. So the head of state was clear, he said: “This procedure was not intended to make a reconciliation with taxes, let’s give up. Because one could have said, it is the same administration. You tell me, you make 01 million and you pay 10,000 francs, now you pay and you tell me you’re making 10 million a month. But we can tell you to go pay a little more, rightly so. And the head of state said no, we are in the process of providing support to our fellow citizens, don’t make that connection. But what touches is that we want to help. The head of state gave everything. Those who declared 10,000 francs would have declared in his time the true amounts of activities, we would have paid the amounts of taxes owed that they would have 100% of their losses. But put yourself instead of the state, what would the state do? Close your eyes to tax returns and give several millions of compensation to somebody ? We can’t do this, it’s everybody’s money and you see that’s what we have to keep changing. We need to continued to question certain practices. We trust the state, when the state says, I’m gonna do that. You see that for 04 years we deliver what we offer, despite all the shocks etc … We deliver. While taking note of these grievances, I would like everyone to note when even that we have been at the state level repeatedly confronted with these inconsistencies. The citizen does not just want to be a citizen, he does what he must do. We are working to make our economy resilient. The system resilient health, etc … but for the economy, everyone should learn that it is because we are a citizen, it is because we declare, it is because we bring our contribution that the State has the means to assist you in hard time. When there is a pandemic and the State takes charge of 100% of drugs to treat Covid-19, it is thanks to the little that everyone contributes. Sustainability yes, which marks in all transformations is that it is sustainable. We have the action program of government over 05 years but we also have the PND, the national development which also covers a period up to 2025. And I think that the implementation of this plan with seriousness, consistency, will allow there to be sustainability of these performances. But we have no doubt that, we will continue performance. What we are seeing shows that the results come from the fundamentals, it is not about results like that, improvised. These are the results that come from our action plans, the results that come from the structural reforms that we are putting in place in all sectors. I remain hopeful that we will continue for a long time this momentum which over time will bring more prosperity to each and everyone. And that makes the link with the housewife’s basket, that’s the question that comes often. What you have to say is that you see since Budget 2019 and 2020, on the instructions of the Head of State who emphasized the health spending, social spending, and what is called social spending priorities, i.e. everything that must be implemented so that the people feel better. As I speak to you, we have a program, for example in the cotton basin to provide support to peasants, farmers to do something other than cotton. We we have support for farmers who make cashew nuts, we have to support for what makes rice, we have a number of programs that allow a certain number of people to become independent, to work, to produce wealth and what I keep saying is that our choice, it is to make sure by the fruit of the work of each one becomes prosperous, independent, proud to be nourished by the fruits of his labor. The state creates the conditions, provides support so that everyone can empower themselves and develop. You know that since the coronavirus crisis has started, several countries have pledged a lot of support, the World Bank has been a very responsive institution that has provided a lot of support, the Monetary Fund too. There are many institutions today that also want to provide support but the procedures are so slow that we did not see anything. If the budget of the state did not have the capacity to react directly, we could not have been where we are today. So the fruit of the work must make it possible to keep the productive investments but must also allow the State to put itself in a position to react when it there are hard knocks. It should not be that when there is a hard blow, the state does not be more capable of paying salaries, of running the administrations, to run hospitals. And so the idea that, money is distributed so that we can feel this idea, I think that little by little we have to get it out of my head, but what matters is how to get each of the Beninese, every day more and more Beninese have access to drinking water, have access to electricity, quality health care, have access to opportunities to create wealth. And that’s what we’re working on.

You know I walk the road every now and then fishing route, and I noted two, three months ago, on the roundabout, end paved up to 01 kilometer, I counted more than 25 small businesses. There is two years there was nothing. The one who sells the “tévi kpo ata kpo”, the one who sells coconuts, the one who makes monyo, the one who sells rice… all the way through. And I was amazed, I say but two years ago there was not that. You see and this is the productive investment side. You invest, you walk in the streets and bring in electricity. It was at 7 p.m. but because there was light etc … People are below and sell and then it’s sacred. Make the experiment you will see. And this is the example concrete fruit of growth. More people who have access to a profession and that’s the logic. Ensure that more and more Beninese can have access to healthcare, basic services, he is sick, he is taken care of charge, today, coronavirus we are taken care of for free. To have access to drinking water, quality care, etc.

This is what we work on and we still have a way to go and I can assure you that when we all see the efforts we are making, if it weren’t for this whole crisis I would wondering where we would actually be. Really. Because from June 2016, we are came immediately in a difficult regional economic context, with the Nigeria, which was making a historic devaluation of its currency, the restriction trade operations between the two countries, the closure of borders, the Covid-19, etc … And despite that, investments continue and we let us continue to be present to meet the needs of the population. All that to say that the vision is good, the objectives and the roadmap for achieve these goals are clear, we will continue to work with serious and the more we go forward, the more the population will feel that the is next and everything is going well.

Journalist 5: Mr. Minister, you were working to make the Benin economy resilient, in your opinion is Beninese a resilient citizen? Mr. Minister of Finance, you recalled the performance of the economy Beninese. Benin is now a middle income country, Beninese is he a middle income citizen? in other words, have we won 400 dollars more? if so, in which field or sector does Mr. Minister.

Journalist 6: Earlier in speaking you mentioned the performances with Benin’s credit, you said you weren’t going to quote everything now. My question is this: so if Benin is doing so well, why is he doing so many loans? Thank you Mr. Minister.

MEF: For me, the resilient citizen is the citizen who evolves in a environment where he feels he has state protection, so when he circulates the police are there to ensure his safety, when he is sick, he has access to quality care, when he wants to be trained he has access to it. When he is vulnerable and falls into an extreme poor category, there is to the ARCH who accompanies him to have free access to health care, or access to microfinance, have access to a pension, etc … That’s the citizen resilient. When you value today, take an extreme poor few years back and today, if you are told that this person today, when it circulates it is not held to ransom by the police. She has a better quality education system, she is more likely to have access to better quality water, there is the ARCH. Populations today I do not know if you have checked, who have the RAVIP card and who benefit today from free care are there, not to mention the care for women, caesarean sections, malaria for children etc… which exist. When you value all these new services that have been put in place and 400 dollars, what does that represent in F CFA? So I think the question is not to say that individually, when we say that it has increased in mean, tried to do it because it is about working so that the citizen have a general living environment and a reality of opportunity to move forward and to create a business, to work without the State being a brake but rather an engine. This is what I have to say on this point. There was a question about: why so much loan?

Earlier I told you that the bank world for several days a posted a debt reprofiling operation. When you get up from debt for example, in our case, very long-term debt, rate very low, to replace with debt of the same amount, but which was short last the same amount; someone who reads you still got up of debt will still say: “Ah, he took on debt again” But the question is what is this debt for? So without becoming technical, when you look at the evolution of our debt ratios, you see that compared to the rate of investment, it grows less quickly than the investment. It means that today, on what we have like wealth released, we do everything to ensure that the essential goes towards investment, and that we are not spending all we have earned as tax we collect. The efforts you all make by taxes that you pay, it serves well to make the State work, it serves to the investment and it’s the complement that comes. So what to remember is that when you have the pace of debt growth that is less strong that the investment, that you know the debt is used to the productive investment that creates wealth, there is nothing to worry about. The second thing is that we live in a world where there are limits which are fixed. In terms of debt, the ceiling of the convergence criteria is 70%. We have set 50% ourselves and we are not yet at 50%. So every time there is new debt that is taken, the first question is: “what is it for?” “. We are in a dynamic management of our debt and I can tell you, if tomorrow we are told that it is possible to go to Hong-Kong, New-York or I do not know where … to go raise the debt at 01% to come and repay the one that is 6%, we’ll do it. Because every time we save loads interest, it is as much money that we will take to put in health, in education, in infrastructure. So what it really takes looking at it is the evolution and not the individual amounts because we had last year, end of year 2019, a few months ago, by the World Bank, the price of the best debt management, because we made operations that no one has done so far. We did what was agreed to call magic because with 50 million support from the Bank World, we could have taken those 50 million in cash, we said we don’t want the 50 million in cash, we want your signature, your guarantee. And thanks to that we went to raise the debt to the transplant to the signature of the debt, less than 3% over more than 10 years to come to repay the domestic debt which was 03 years old, 05 years to 08 and a half% of the inherited debt when we had come to 08.5%. And that, it was rated best operation, and when you see that and we are congratulate do not say: “Ah what do we do with money ”. We are so watched that if we did anything with money, it would be known. But on the other side I also want us to uninhibited about the debt. Earlier we talked about countries middle income and you may have worried that we are closing capacity to access concessional debt. It’s just debt at very low long-term interest rates. But do you know that today we can have access to markets; to concessional debt without going through the World Bank or other institutions. Interest rates are negative and lastingly negative. There are countries that are now income countries Student. I agree with you that when you move to an income country high you can no longer have access to donations and loans from the Bank Global concessional. But these countries have access to debt of type perpetual. That is, since you are a super rich, high income country, limit you want to put your savings with you, people want you perpetually keep their money. There are countries that today emit debt. It is more than 100 years old, that is to say that it is to be repaid one day, and you just pay 01% less than 01% interest because you’re high income. So when Benin is in the race to go up, fear not. If we change one day of middle income and we get high, I agree we will have more concessional loans but we will have better than that. Because a debt perpetual where you have the money, because they say but, it is so rich that we can entrust him with the money, it’s even better than going to concessional debt. So know that we are in a world where they say usually you only lend to the rich, so the longer you stay, the more you go up, the solutions are different but exist and are generally better than the tools available to the very, very poor. So here it is for the debt, you see the big countries of this world have debt rates that are multiples of their GDP. There are countries that are at 100%, 200% of their GDP but yet they are holding on. These are countries that are investing today. they have already solved problems like infrastructure, which invest today to make the green economy, to innovate, to other things. And we who still need to provide basic services to solve problems in the country, we will say to each other, no, we will not no no, we are not going… The debt is used for a productive investment which with 100 will allow to generate more than 100, to do it especially when you have the capacity and us, all this is framed in a national strategy debt which sets criteria even stricter than the criteria authorized.

I thank everyone for the questions, which allowed me to bring maybe some clarifications. I hope that I would have allowed everyone here to leave reassured and proud to be Beninese, reassured that tomorrow will be better, reassured that we are on the right road, reassured that the Head of State and his entire government watch every day that no one is put beside the road. We do everything for that every time we earn a little more money, a part significant amount of this money is really intended for expenditure on support to poor and the extreme poor. Because, it is by reducing poverty really that we are developing and I’m happy that when we look at the progress of human development indices, I still prefer these indices to all other macro indices. We see that Benin by independent sources, the UNDP sees that there is progress. I’m counting on you all to keep us going support, to bring criticism, because your criticism feeds us and allow us to do better. And I am convinced that, listening to you, listening to your reviews, adjusting what to adjust, we are sure that you will all continue to be proud of Benin. That Benin will continue to amaze, in the sub-region, at the level of Africa and at the International. Thank you.

Interview by Amèdé MAHOUTONKPE

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