Guideline and Strategies of Textile Industry on the Sustainable Development of Benin

Abstract

Benin is one of Africa’s leading authorities in cotton production. Today, Benin’s textile firms face challenges that affect their textile production efficiency level. The study employs exploratory and descriptive methods. Applying the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) methods to make proper analysis after a wide range of surveys to provide guidance about the resilience of the textile industry in Benin. The SWOT-AHP approach was employed with secondary data sources. The analytical results highlight the need for private capital to resolve technical challenges and boost the industry’s competitiveness by examining the manufactory’s significant weaknesses, such as dated technological installations and the implementation of source energy. Overall, the results suggest that Benin state plays a regulatory role rather than a decision-making role. For the country’s textile firms to benefit economically and enhance their efficiency level, we recommend that Benin’s government switch the industrial structure from cotton processing to textile manufacturing. Moreover, the results obtained also testify that, on the one hand, there is a need to rebuild the foundations of industrial development in order to link industrial sectors with the potential of the primary and tertiary sectors, and on the other hand, it is important to set up an adequate environment that is capable of allowing industrial activity to be carried out effectively, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, hence enhancing the sustainability of Benin textile companies’ performance.