Atlantique Department

Atlantique Department demonstrates how industrial zones can function as ecosystem engineers, reshaping economic landscapes around deliberate infrastructure. The Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ), located near Cotonou, represents Benin's most ambitious attempt to capture manufacturing value that currently flows to Asian competitors. By processing cotton domestically rather than exporting raw fiber to Bangladesh, GDIZ aims to transform Benin from commodity producer to industrial player—a shift in trophic level from primary to secondary production.

The department surrounds but excludes Cotonou (which forms separate Littoral Department), creating unusual administrative geometry where the economic capital sits within but apart from its hinterland. This separation, established in 1999, reflects Cotonou's dominance—the port city's economy operates on different logic than surrounding agricultural zones. Atlantique's economy mixes peri-urban services, agriculture, and increasingly, industrial employment from GDIZ.

Infrastructure investment reshapes settlement patterns. The Sèmè-Kpodji special economic zone, near the Nigerian border, represents another manufacturing node. Together with GDIZ, these zones attempt to create industrial clusters through deliberate seeding rather than organic growth. Whether Benin can achieve the agglomeration effects that make industrial zones self-sustaining—the positive feedback loops of supplier networks and skilled labor pools—remains the central question for Atlantique's economic trajectory.