The Algerian delegation’s participation in the Benin Deal Room 2026, held from 16 to 18 September in Cotonou, has sparked a broader debate about the future of South-South cooperation. The multisectoral team — covering pharmaceuticals, energy, infrastructure and public enterprises — signalled Algiers’ determination to turn its African presence into tangible economic deals. Yet the fallout from this push raises a difficult question: how can trade between African nations intensify when key borders remain shut? The still-closed frontier between Niger and Benin stands as the most glaring contradiction to the continent’s ambitions for deeper economic integration.
A marketplace for African capital takes shape in Cotonou
For three days, the Beninese commercial capital became a meeting point for investors eyeing the country’s growth prospects. The Benin Deal Room 2026, staged under the auspices of the Beninese government, brought together institutional investors, development finance institutions, project promoters, strategic companies and public officials around a portfolio of more than twenty projects.
Financing needs were put at between 2 and 3 billion dollars, spanning sectors from agro-industry and manufacturing to infrastructure, logistics and energy. The stated goal was not merely to host another economic forum, but to connect capital directly with projects mature enough to become concrete operations.
That logic is what gave the Algerian presence its significance. A national multisectoral delegation — including representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, energy and renewables, as well as heads of state-owned groups such as the CEO of Saidal and the head of the Algerian Electrical 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 build partnerships capable of anchoring Algerian firms in West Africa over the long term.
From political diplomacy to economic diplomacy
This approach reflects a notable shift in Algeria’s Africa policy. After years of prioritising political, diplomatic and security cooperation, Algiers now seeks to strengthen the economic dimension of its continental presence.
The Beninese context is particularly conducive. The country wants to accelerate 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 could open doors in several areas.
Pharmaceuticals are one avenue. The expertise built up by Algeria’s drug industry could extend into West Africa through exports, distribution and, eventually, local production and technology transfers.
Electricity is 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, especially in Sahelian areas where solar power can be a major driver of electrification.
The challenge is to move from a classic commercial relationship — selling Algerian products to African customers — to a more ambitious model: producing, investing, training and transferring skills on the continent.
The Niger paradox: cooperating without moving
But this ambition runs into a geopolitical reality that goes beyond relations between Algiers and Cotonou.
Niger is today one of Algeria’s strategic partners. The two countries have deepened cooperation in security, transport and energy. In June 2026, Algeria 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 start of drilling at the Kafra oil block in northern Niger by Sonatrach, in the presence of the Algerian and Nigerien prime ministers. The project is presented as potentially boosting road infrastructure, logistics, energy and exchanges between southern Algeria and the Agadez region.
On security, Algiers even went as far as providing military support to Niger in August 2026, at the request of the authorities in Niamey.
Yet a few hundred kilometres to the west, the border between Niger and Benin remains closed.
That closure, inherited from the crisis triggered by the July 2023 coup, is now one of the main contradictions of regional integration. Talks between Cotonou and Niamey in 2026 produced progress on security, transit and some economic and legal aspects, but no firm reopening timetable had been confirmed by late September.
For Niamey, security concerns remain paramount. But the situation carries an economic cost: goods bound for Niger from the port of Cotonou must take alternative routes, with added delays and expenses.
A sealed border at the heart of an integration project
The Niger-Benin case raises a fundamental question: can South-South cooperation truly exist 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 key maritime outlet for landlocked countries in the West African hinterland. For Niger, access to Beninese port infrastructure is an important part of its supply chain.
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 is a warning. Geographic diversification of exports cannot be separated from building secure, functional corridors.
Algeria has a major asset: its geographic depth. The development of trans-Saharan routes, the Algiers-Lagos highway 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 in a regional environment that allows the regular movement of goods, capital and skills.
Towards a new generation of South-South partnerships
The Algerian presence at the Benin Deal Room 2026 therefore takes on a wider dimension. It reflects a desire to build African cooperation based less on declarations than on identifiable projects, investments and shared economic interests.
That is probably where the real challenge of South-South cooperation lies. It is no longer just about African countries trading more with each other, but about jointly building African value chains: making 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 capacity. Niger holds considerable energy and mining resources and is 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, especially between Niger and Benin, would be more than a bilateral gesture. It would send a signal in favour of an Africa capable of overcoming its political divisions to prioritise shared economic interests.
Algeria at its African crossroads
By taking part in the Cotonou gathering, Algiers appears to have decided to stop treating the African market as a mere natural extension of its exports, and to see it instead as a strategic space for investment and partnership.
The challenge now will be to turn contacts made in 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, interconnected infrastructure and political stability, ambitions will remain fragmented.
The message from Cotonou is twofold: Africa now attracts African capital itself; the question is whether borders will become the limits of that new ambition.
