5. Striking Gold In Cotonou? Three Cases Of Entrepreneurship In The Euro-West African Second-Hand Car Trade In Benin

This chapter shows how this Euro-West African second-hand car trade network has expanded rapidly over the past two decades. It discusses the significance of a new form of entrepreneurship connected to it. The chapter focuses on the entrepreneurial behaviour of individual car traders. It highlights the significance of non-economic factors in investment decisions that become logical when viewed from the car traders' perspective. It presents a brief history of the Cotonou car market. The chapter discusses the case studies of three individual car traders, Mohammed Kabbani, Djiouma Bureima and Luckman Omichessan. It also shows how the career patterns that emerged in Cotonou, alongside the tendency of traders to organize their businesses on the basis on kinship and ethnic affiliation reveals a burgeoning entrepreneurship that led to little capital accumulation. Keywords: Cotonou car market; Djiouma Bureim; Euro-West African second-hand car trade network; Luckman Omichessan; Mohammed Kabbani