Introduction: General physicians can play an important role in the early detection of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Purpose: To assess the levels of general physicians’ knowledge, attitude and practice in terms of early detection of DN in Cotonou. Method: It was a cross-sectional, analytical and descriptive study which was conducted from 1st March 2015 to 30th September 2015. Every general physician working in a health structure in Cotonou who consented to participate in the study was included. We did not included medical specialists and general physicians working in nephrology department. Data were collected through a survey form designed with a score to assess the various items such as: knowledge, attitude and practice. The significance threshold is set to below 0.05. Results: In total, 202 general physicians were included. The average age was 30.9 ± 6.9 years ranging from 24 to 68 years. A male predominance was observed with 2.2 sex ratio. The majority of respondent medical physicians had poor knowledge in 76.2% cases, bad attitudes (61%) and bad practices (64.9%) in terms of early detection of diabetic nephropathy. There was positive impact of continuing medical training focused on diabetic nephropathy on attitudes (p = 0.016) and practices (p = 0.001) of these physicians. Conclusion: Diabetic nephropathy requires particular attention. General physicians’ continuous training is a principal solution.