Benin: Sèmè City and Sorbonne University seal a partnership around AI and materials

The Sèmè City Institute of Technology and Innovation (SCITI) and Sorbonne University signed a framework cooperation agreement in the presence of two government members, Wadagni and France’s ambassador to Benin, Nadège Chouat. The ceremony, which took place in Cotonou, institutionalizes an active collaboration since 2021 and elevates it to a formal level between the academic institution of Sèmè City and one of the world’s leading universities.

The presence of Sèdami Mèdégan Fagla, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Mahuna Akplogan, Minister of Digital Transformation and Innovation responsible for the national artificial intelligence strategy, alongside Lionel Zinsou, president of the Sèmè City Foundation, Claude Borna, general director of the Sèmè City Development Agency, Thierry d’Almeida, general director of SCITI, and Nathalie Drach-Temam, president of Sorbonne University, illustrates the political and institutional grounding of the initiative.

The agreement consolidates a partnership established on July 16, 2021, between Sorbonne University and the Sèmè City Development Agency. It focuses on three areas: materials science, artificial intelligence, and innovation management. Over five years, the collaboration has already produced accredited training programs, four editions of a summer school dedicated to future materials, and a continuous training program in AI for professionals in the financial sector.

What SCITI is and what the agreement consolidates

SCITI is the academic institution of Sèmè City, the innovation hub launched in 2017 by the Beninese government under Patrice Talon on a 27-hectare site in Cotonou. It is distinct from the Sèmè City Development Agency (ADSC), which is the governance structure. Mahuna Akplogan, the signing minister, had previously worked there before his appointment in May 2026, giving him direct knowledge of the partnership’s challenges.

The new agreement is not a renewal of the one from 2021 – it is more precise in its scope and more directly linked to SCITI as a fully-fledged academic entity, with a designated general director, Thierry d’Almeida, since 2024. On February 10, 2026, Drach-Temam and Zinsou held a working session in Paris, alongside Almeida and Guillaume Fiquet, a member of Sorbonne’s governance responsible for international relations, to define new perspectives for the partnership.

Operationally, the fifth edition of the Sorbonne-Sèmè City Summer School – dedicated to studying locally available resources for constructing future materials – will take place from June 29 to July 10, 2026, at Sèmè One in Cotonou, in partnership with the Research Institute for Development (IRD). It is aimed at master’s students, doctoral candidates, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty researchers in materials science, from Africa and beyond.

Cooperation in a geopolitical context

The presence of France’s ambassador, Nadège Chouat, at the signing ceremony is significant. The SCITI-Sorbonne agreement is supported by the French embassy as part of its assistance for scientific cooperation partnerships. This occurs in a context where relations between France and Benin are undergoing a period of realignment under the Wadagni government, whose inaugural diplomatic tour prioritized Sahelian neighbors – some of whom have expelled France from their territories – at the top of the regional agenda.

In this context, Franco-Beninese university cooperation serves as a lever that Paris intends to keep active regardless of geopolitical turbulence. By establishing a presence in Sèmè City since 2021, Sorbonne has bet that Benin would become a regional academic hub – a bet that the signature of the framework agreement with SCITI reinforces, under the presidency of a head of state whose Minister of Digital Transformation is precisely a former actor in this ecosystem.