Benin's President Patrice Talon has asked local firm Petrolin and French giant Bollore to "withdraw" from a major rail infrastructure project to make way for China, in the latest development of the controversial scheme. In an interview published on Thursday in the French magazine Challenges, Talon asked the two companies to "withdraw amicably from the project", which links Benin to Niger to the north, promising they will be "compensated fairly". "A private investor cannot finance the railway we want alone," the head of state was quoted as saying, describing Bollore's offer as "lower-end".
"China has the necessary financial means" to support work estimated to cost around $4 billion (3.3 billion euros), said Talon. "China has demonstrated its technical know-how" to build infrastructure in Africa, added the president, who rarely speaks to the media. Talon's remarks are the latest twist in a saga that has been going on for years. In 2008, Benin and Niger launched a bid to manage the construction and management of a 740-kilometre (462-mile) railway network linking Cotonou and Niamey.
The bid was won by Petrolin, a company owned by Beninese businessman Samuel Dossou, but was handed over by the government in 2013 to the Bollore group through Benirail, a company representing a public-private partnership. However last October, a Benin judge ruled that Petrolin should have had the contract and dismissed Bollore.
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