When a multisectoral Algerian delegation walked into the Benin Deal Room 2026, held from 16 to 18 September in Cotonou, the message was clear: Algiers wants its African presence to translate into tangible economic partnerships. Pharmaceuticals, energy, infrastructure and state-owned enterprises topped the agenda. Yet beneath the Beninese opportunity lies a far more complicated regional equation — how do you intensify South-South trade when borders remain shut in the very heart of West Africa? The frontier between Niger and Benin, still closed despite repeated attempts at rapprochement, stands as one of the starkest paradoxes facing any ambition of a more self-reliant African economic integration.
Cotonou becomes a marketplace for African economic ambition
For three days, Cotonou turned 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 pipeline of more than twenty projects.
Announced financing needs range between $2 billion and $3 billion, spanning sectors as diverse as agro-industry, manufacturing, infrastructure, logistics and energy. The stated ambition is not that of a simple economic forum: it is about connecting capital directly with projects deemed mature enough to result in concrete deals.
That logic is precisely what makes Algeria’s presence interesting. A national multisectoral 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 aim is to identify markets, forge industrial alliances and bring about partnerships capable of establishing Algerian companies durably in West Africa.
From political diplomacy to economic diplomacy
This orientation reflects a significant shift in Algeria’s Africa policy. After long prioritising 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 know-how accumulated by Algeria’s pharmaceutical industry can find extensions in West Africa through exports and distribution, but also, eventually, local production and technology transfers.
Electricity is another strategic sector. The expertise 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 electrification lever.
The challenge is thus to move from a classic commercial relationship — selling Algerian products to African clients — to a more ambitious logic: producing, investing, training and transferring skills in Africa.
The Niger paradox: cooperating without moving
But this ambition collides with 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 meant 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 foster road infrastructure, logistics, energy and trade between southern Algeria and the Agadez region.
On the security front, Algiers even 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 initiated in 2026 between Cotonou and Niamey produced progress on security, transit and certain economic and legal aspects, but no firm reopening timetable had been confirmed by the end of September.
For Niamey, security concerns remain central. But the situation carries an economic cost: goods destined for Niger from the port of Cotonou must use alternative routes, with extra delays and expenses.
A closed border at the heart of an integration ambition
The Niger-Benin case therefore raises a fundamental question: can we truly speak of South-South cooperation 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 an important maritime outlet for the landlocked countries of the West African hinterland. For Niger, access to Beninese port infrastructure is a key 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 across several countries.
For Algeria, which wants precisely to expand its trade with Africa, this situation is a warning. Geographic diversification of exports cannot be separated from building secure, functional corridors.
Algeria holds 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 deliver their full effect if they operate within a regional environment allowing regular movement of goods, capital and skills.
Towards a new generation of South-South partnerships
Algeria’s presence at the Benin Deal Room 2026 thus takes on a broader dimension. It reflects a willingness 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 just about African countries trading more with one another, but about jointly building African value chains: 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 seeks 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, notably 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 political divisions to prioritise its common economic interests.
Algeria at its African crossroads
By taking part in the Cotonou gathering, Algiers appears to have chosen to stop viewing the African market as a mere natural extension of its exports, and instead as a strategic space for investment and partnership.
The challenge now will be to turn contacts made in the Deal Rooms into contracts, industrial facilities and lasting 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.