Togo and Benin, countries in West Africa, have full opportunities for apparel manufacturers and, importantly, Government of these countries are also fully supportive to attract foreign investors.
These countries have plenty of advantages – right from cotton availability to systematically developed industrial parks with all amenities, duty advantages with EU and US, proximity with these countries and much more.
Recently addressing a webinar “Investment opportunities in West Africa through TOGO Government supported Arise Textile Park” Rajaguru Raja, CEO-Textiles, Arise IIP highlighted how these countries can be the best place for garment manufacturing.
Dubai-based ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms designs, finances, conceives and operates industrial ecosystems across Africa.
Sharing benefits of both the countries and how ARISE can help the investors, Rajaguru, who has experience of four decades in the global textile industry, said that compared to other leading apparel manufacturing countries, Togo and Benin’ goods avail 9 to 20 per cent duty exemption in the US market and 4 to 12 per cent in Europe.
“Labour cost is here around US $ 105 per month which is quite less compared to Bangladesh and India. It takes around 20 days to reach goods from Togo to EU and 25 days from Togo to US while from Bangladesh and India, it takes almost 40 days for the same,” he said.
He further added that industrial parks in these countries are designed in environment-compliant way and there is complete eco system like CETP, designed centres, ICD within park, world class R&D centres and every other facility required for a good textile or apparel hub.
The entire cotton produced in Africa is CMAI certified and this good quality cotton is perfect for products like knitted garment, denim and towel as well.
Vocational training centre at the park will make sure there’s skilled workforce for factories – not to mention, the Government has lucrative policies regarding tax exemptions.
Both the countries have political stability and a good working environment as well.
It should be mentioned here that Benin Industrial Park has 1,640 hectares of land; 60 hectares of the land will be required for five integrated textile plants and 24 hectares of land and will be required for 20 standalone garment units.
PIA textile park 1, PIA textile park 2, 120 hectares of land plots to be deployed in the first phase, out of the total 400 hectares in Togo.
“Arise assists single-window clearance for all formalities and buyer search assistance is also there for factories,” he said.
From these countries, investors not only have the opportunity to export the major markets of US and EU, but even untapped African market adds scope for them.
These parks are piloting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2023.
