FIFA has awarded production of 2026 World Cup replica shirts and Football for Schools kits to Benin Textile SA (Btex), a vertically integrated cotton-to-garment factory inside the 1,640-hectare Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ), with bulk Coton-4+ manufacturing formally launched across West Africa in March 2026.

The contract routes through GDIZ, the industrial platform developed by Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP) and founded by Indian entrepreneur Gagan Gupta. The zone sits 45 kilometres from Cotonou.

Btex runs spinning, knitting, dyeing and finishing under one roof — a structure Arise IIP says enables the delivery of "millions" of ready-to-wear garments, shirts and home textiles each year. Existing commercial partners include French value retailer Kiabi and U.S. Polo.

Cotton is GDIZ's textile feedstock. The zone concentrates cashew, shea and palm oil alongside the fibre crop, and the on-site cotton pipeline is what enabled Benin to meet FIFA's specification for the schools programme.

What does the FIFA order cover?

The deal traces to a September 2022 memorandum of understanding between FIFA and WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. At the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference in February 2024, FIFA confirmed it would source Football for Schools equipment in multiple African markets.

The March 2026 launch extends kit production into the Coton-4+ cluster — Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad — for school-aged players. FIFA has separately signalled Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Côte d'Ivoire as candidate partner countries for future orders.

Beyond schools kit, Btex is producing 2026 World Cup replica shirts inside the Beninese zone. The factory currently turns out sheets, towels and ready-to-wear garments alongside its sportswear volumes.

Who backs the GDIZ infrastructure?

GDIZ is a public-private partnership between the Beninese government and Arise IIP. As of September 2025, the developer counts four shareholders:

• FEDA, the impact-investment arm of Afreximbank
• Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)
• Equitane
• Vision Invest of Saudi Arabia

The zone's first 400 hectares host about 15 companies. The remainder of the 1,640-hectare site is under reservation contracts, with more than 30 additional firms signed up, according to zone management. Phase 2 of the development plan is already under way.

Arise IIP runs comparable special economic zone projects in Gabon and Togo, positioning the firm as a multi-country industrial platform operator rather than a single-site developer.

How large is the jobs pipeline?

SIPI Director-General Létondji Beheton told Tõnd Média in February that GDIZ targets 300,000 direct jobs and 600,000 indirect roles within ten years. The 1,640-hectare footprint leaves substantial build-out headroom against the 400 hectares already active.

Benin is now Africa's leading cotton producer. The country is projected to harvest 632,000 tonnes in the 2025/2026 season — the raw fibre that feeds Btex's spinning lines on site.

The shift from raw-cotton exporter to finished-garment supplier underpins Benin's industrial pivot, with Btex the flagship facility.

What does this force for sourcing and compliance?

For sourcing managers, the contract elevates Btex from domestic supplier to confirmed tier-1 vendor on a globally televised event programme. The deal locks in capacity during a window when FIFA kit volumes typically peak.

Compliance teams should trace the cotton stream to documented Beninese 2025/2026 harvests and request chain-of-custody records tied to Btex's spinning output. The vertically integrated structure removes intermediary layers but concentrates traceability documentation onto a single operator.

Sourcing directors scouting West African capacity should benchmark Arise IIP's Gabon and Togo sites against the GDIZ model, now that Coton-4+ production is formally active across four markets.

Arise IIP declined to comment on the FIFA order without FIFA's consent.