Yearbook 1996
Benin. Benin elected president March 18. Former dictator General Mathieu Kérékou received 52% of the vote and won the election. Nicéphore Soglo, who has led the country since 1991, found it difficult to accept the loss of elections and considered that there was electoral fraud. Not until April 2 did he admit defeat, and a few days later the new government could be presented.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG: What does BN stand for? In the field of geography, this two letter acronym means Benin. Check this to see its other meanings in English and other 35 languages.
In May, the country got a Swedish ambassador, Bo Wilén, who is already an ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Togo and Burkina Faso.
Population 1996
According to Countryaah.com, the population of Benin in 1996 was 5,905,447, ranking number 95 in the world. The population growth rate was 3.470% yearly, and the population density was 52.3728 people per km2.
HUMAN AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
West African state, on the Gulf of Guinea. Overpopulated country, Benin maintained a rate of demographic growth (3.2 % per year in the period 2000-2005) superior to the development of the economy. At the 2002 census the population (mainly concentrated in the southern regions) was 6,769,914 residents, while in 2005, according to some estimates, it exceeded 8.4 million. In 1998 the six provinces into which the country was divided were replaced by twelve departments: Alibori (25,683 km 2), Atacora (20,459 km 2), Atlantique (3233 km 2), Borgou (25,310 km 2), Collines (13,561 km 2), Couffo (2404 km 2), Donga (10,691 km 2), Littoral (79 km 2), Mono (1396 km 2), Ouémé (2835 km 2), Plateau (1865 km 2), Zou (5106 km 2).
The economy of Italy had gone through a constant phase of growth between 1990 and 2003, with an increase in real terms of GDP per capita of 2.1 % per year, but the fight against poverty continued to be one of the priority objectives. government, as a third of the population lived below this threshold. In 2001 about half of the employed worked in the primary sector, which in 2003 contributed 35.7 % to the formation of GDP. The main crop was that of cotton (150,000 t of fiber and 425,000 t of seeds in 2003), which covered more than half of the total exports; however, as part of a crop diversification policy, the government launched a development program for the palm oil supply chain which envisaged an increase in the area devoted to palm cultivation from 6100 ha in 2004 to 26,910 in 2010. The authorities were also involved in the fight against deforestation and, supported by international organizations, encouraged the planting of commercial essences, in particular teak. Electricity was supplied almost entirely by imports from Ghana, and to reduce this dependence, the construction (in partnership with Togo) of a hydroelectric plant on the Mono River was planned.