In an interview with the French weekly Challenge, the president of Benin, Patrice Talon, believes that Bolloré must leave the great railway project of the Niger loop.
3000 km long, this pharaonic site awarded to the French group in 2013 has not progressed since, entangled in a judicial standoff.
Magistrates have ruled in favor of Bolloré’s rival, the Beninese businessman Samuel Dossou, who believes he has rights previously granted by the Beninese government. “We have to get out of this legal jumble,” says Patrice Talon. Both operators must withdraw, amicably, from the project. And they will have to be compensated fairly, “says Challenge.
For Patrice Talon, only China is capable of achieving such a € 3 billion project, which must link Cotonou to Abidjan via Niger and Burkina Faso. Beijing has already agreed in principle.
It remains to be seen how Paris would see the intrusion of the Middle Kingdom in its pre-square to realize a French project dating back to 1905.
