The BCEAO Tower is Cotonou's most prominent skyscraper — at 64 metres and 16 floors, it is the tallest building in Benin. Inaugurated in 1994, it serves as the headquarters of the Beninese branch of the Central Bank of West African States. The building is not open to the public, but it is worth looking at from the street: the facade is decorated with bas-relief cowrie shells, referencing the currency that circulated across the Gulf of Guinea before European colonisation.
The tower sits in the commercial heart of central Cotonou, near the Boulevard Saint-Michel, and it gives orientation to the city in a neighbourhood where everything else is low-rise. The surrounding streets are among the busiest in Cotonou — a constant flow of zem motorcycle taxis, market women with goods balanced on their heads, and traders from across the region. Even if the building itself is unremarkable inside, the area around it is vivid.