Parakou lies on the main north-south highway RNIE 2
and at the end of a railway to Cotonou. This has made it an important market
town, with major industries in cotton and textiles, peanut oil manufacture and brewing.
The town grew initially from revenue generated from passing merchants that took
goods from the region across the Sahara and the Mediterranean to Europe. It
also served as an important stop over in the distribution of goods around
Africa. As a result Parakou became well known in the slave trade. Later traders
concentrated on cotton and Parakou remains the hub of the Beninese cotton trade
to this day,
