TCF POST Special Report

GENEVA - The Cotton Partnership (PPC), co-convened by the WTO and UNIDO, hosted a meeting on 29 to bring textile and garment investment to West and Central Africa. Five cotton-producing countries, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire (the C-4+ group), are marketing themselves to investors as a single manufacturing region rather than as separate raw-fibre exporters.

The project

The drive was launched on the sidelines of the Global Aid for Trade Review at the “From Lint to Label” event, co-organized by the WTO and UNIDO. It aims to move the region up the cotton-textile-garment chain by matching capital with ready projects. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the core problem is that money and investable projects arec'h wcsklay.

Key numbers:

  • A UNIDO and ITC baseline assessment points to potential commitments of about US$12 billion over ten years, including roughly US$5 billion of private money.
  • The projected result is about 500,000 direct jobs, mainly for women and youth, plus around 1.5 million indirect jobs.
  • PPC technical workshops have produced more than ten bankable projects, and financial partners have committed to funding them.

The product

The offer to investors is a pitch for a regional supply chain with defined roles:

  • Coastal countries provide ports, industrial platforms and land.
  • Landlocked countries anchor supply with certified cotton.
  • Investors get one entry point, the Africa Textile Invest platform, launched in March at the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference.
  • All investor contacts feed a single shared pipeline.

Who is paying

ITFC, Afreximbank, the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and UNIDO have pooled funds for the drive. Afreximbank’s Project Preparation Facility will shape industrial plans to meet lender requirements before investment. The EIF joined the PPC as its newest member and is turning country priorities into investable projects through its Phase Three programme documents.

The PPC also includes the International Trade Centre (ITC), the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

What’s next

UNIDO will prepare country investor presentations in the coming months. It will then target the markets where textile investors are most active, naming China and Türkiye, and bring them to meet project promoters in the region.

The stated goal is the first spinning mills and garment factories to open in the C-4+ zone, and a model that could be copied for other value chains and regions.