Location:
Central Africa
Capital City:
N’djamena
Area:
total: 1.284 million sq km
land: 1,259,200 sq km
water: 24,800 sq km
Land boundaries:
Total: 6,406 km
border countries (6):
Cameroon 1,116 km,
The central African Republic 1,556 km,
Libya 1,050 km,
Niger 1,196 km,
Nigeria 85 km,
Sudan 1,403 km
Coastline: 0 km
Total: 6,406 km

Chad


Climate:
tropical in south,
desert in north
Terrain:
broad, arid plains in center, desert in north,
mountains in northwest, lowlands in the south
Elevation:
mean elevation: 543 m
elevation extremes: lowest point: Djourab 160 m
highest point: Emi Koussi 3,445 m
Natural resources:
petroleum, uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad), gold, limestone, sand and gravel, salt
Land use:
agricultural land: 39.6%
arable land 3.9%; permanent crops 0%; permanent pasture 35.7%
forest: 9.1%
other: 51.3% (2011 est.)
Irrigated land:
300 sq km (2012)
Population – distribution:
the population is unevenly distributed due to contrasts in climate ;
the highest density is found in the southwest;
the dry Saharan zone to the north is the least densely populated
Natural hazards:
hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds occur in north;
periodic droughts;
locust plagues

People and Society
The population of Chad will continue to grow rapidly because of the country’s very high fertility rate and large youth cohort – more than 65% of the populace is under the age of 25 – although the mortality rate is high and life expectancy is low. Chad has the world’s third highest maternal mortality rate. The country’s population is young: an estimated 47.3% is under 15. The birth rate is estimated at 42.35 births per 1,000 people, the mortality rate at 16.69. The life expectancy is 52 years.
Chad’s population is unevenly distributed. Density is 0.1/km2 (0.26/sq mi) in the Saharan Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region but 52.4/km2 (136/sq mi) in the Logone Occidental Region. In the capital, it is even higher. About half of the nation’s population lives in the southern fifth of its territory, making this the most densely populated region. Urban life is concentrated in the capital, whose population is mostly engaged in commerce. The other major towns are Sarh, Moundou, Abéché, and Doba, which are considerably smaller but growing rapidly in population and economic activity.
As of October 2017, more than 320,000 refugees from Sudan and more than 75,000 from the Central African Republic strain Chad’s limited resources and create tensions in host communities. Thousands of new refugees fled to Chad in 2013 to escape worsening violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. The large refugee populations are hesitant to return to their home countries because of continued instability. Chad was relatively stable in 2012 in comparison to other states in the region, but past fighting between government forces and opposition groups and inter-communal violence have left nearly 60,000 of its citizens displaced in the eastern part of the country.
Population:
12,075,985 (July 2017 est.)
Nationality:
Chadian(s)
Ethnic groups:
Sara (Ngambaye/Sara/Madjingaye/Mbaye) 30.5%, Kanembu/Bornu/Buduma 9.8%, Arab 9.7%, Wadai/Maba/Masalit/Mimi 7%, Gorane 5.8%, Masa/Musseye/Musgum 4.9%, Bulala/Medogo/Kuka 3.7%, Marba/Lele/Mesme 3.5%, Mundang 2.7%, Bidiyo/Migaama/Kenga/Dangleat 2.5%, Dadjo/Kibet/Muro 2.4%, Tupuri/Kera 2%, Gabri/Kabalaye/Nanchere/Somrai 2%, Fulani/Fulbe/Bodore 1.8%, Karo/Zime/Peve 1.3%, Baguirmi/Barma 1.2%, Zaghawa/Bideyat/Kobe 1.1%, Tama/Assongori/Mararit 1.1%, Mesmedje/Massalat/Kadjakse 0.8%, other Chadian ethnicities 3.4%, Chadians of foreign ethnicities 0.9%, foreign nationals 0.3%, unspecified 1.7%.
Languages:
French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in the south), more than 120 different languages and dialects.
Religions:
Muslim 52.1%, Protestant 23.9%, Roman Catholic 20%, animist 0.3%, other Christian 0.2%, none 2.8%, unspecified 0.7% (2014-15 est.)
Ethnicity, Language, and Religion
The largest ethnic group is the Sara, representing 28% of the country’s population. The Sara people trace their ancestry to the Sao, who were displaced from the north-east banks of the Nile River by Arab slave traders and settled in Chad in the 16th century. They are patrilineal and non-Muslim, with significant population still practicing traditional faiths. The Arabs make up 12% of Chad’s population. They are semi-sedentary and mostly occupy the Ouaddai and Chari Baguirmi regions in the country. Their presence can be traced back to the Arab invasions in the area and the subsequent conversions to Islam. The Daza ethnic group has an 11% share of the population in Chad. Islam is the main religion of the population which inhabits the Sahara Desert’s southern fringes.
The Mayo-Kebbi people make up 10% of Chad’s population. The group lives in proximity to the Sara people in the country’s southwestern region. The rest of Chad’s ethnic groups are the Kanem-Bornou (9%); Ouaddai (9%); Hadjarai (7%); Tandjilé (7%), and Fitri-Batha (5%). Other groups makeup 2% of the population and include the Gorane, Fulani, Karo, Katoko, Maba, Massa, Mbaye, and Moundang. Non-indigenous ethnicities in Chad include the Sudanese and the French.
Chad’s languages fall into ten major groups, each of which belongs to either the Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic, or Congo Kordofanian language family. These represent three of the four major language families in Africa; only the Khoisan languages of southern Africa are not represented. The presence of such different languages suggests that the Lake Chad Basin may have been an important point of dispersal in ancient times. Chad has two official languages, French and Modern Standard Arabic, and over 120 indigenous languages. A vernacular version of Arabic, Chadian Arabic, is the lingua franca. Of the two official languages, French has the most speakers in Chad (though Chadian Arabic has more speakers in Chad than both French and Standard Arabic). Chad submitted an application to join the Arab Leagueas a member state on 25 March 2014, which is still pending.
About three-fifths of the population are Sunni Muslim. The great majority of Muslims are found in the north and east of Chad. Islamization in Kanem came very early and was followed by the conversion to Islam of the major political entities of the region, such as the sultanates of Wadai, Bagirmi, and Fitri, and—more recently—the Saharan region. Islam is well established in most major towns and wherever Arab populations are found. It has attracted a wide variety of ethnic groups and has forged a certain unity which, however, has not resulted in the complete elimination of various local practices and customs.
Education
The educational system of Chad is patterned after the French model, having the levels of primary, secondary and higher education. Primary education is free and compulsory, starting with 6-year old children and gives them basic literacy training for six years. The secondary education is offered for seven years and affords students the option to go into vocational courses such as hotel management, fashion designing and other livelihood programs of study.
The relatively small number of Chad children who enter secondary school are still far more likely to be boys than girls. After the first 3 or 6 years, the state subsidies fall away. Those students who remain on and achieve their secondary school leaving certificate are thus more likely to be sons and daughters of wealthier city dwellers. Primary school graduates who are not accepted at secondary schools can study in a variety of manual or technical fields at vocational institutions. After 6 years the successful ones are rewarded with a Certificat d’Aptitude Professionelle.
The University of N’Djamena (est. 1971) is the only university in the country. The university has four faculties—exact and applied sciences; law, economics, and business administration; letters, languages, and human sciences; and medicine. There is a zoological and veterinary institute at Farcha, a national communications college in Sarh, and a national college of administration in N’Djamena. In 2000, about 6,000 students were enrolled in some type of higher education program. The adult literacy rate in 2004 was estimated at about 25.5%, with 40.6% for men and 12.7% for women.
The government of Chad has developed an interim education plan (Plan Intérimaire de l’Éducation au Tchad, PIET) for the period 2018-2020, which follows the SIPEA transitional education plan. The plan seeks to increase the supply of education services, improve the quality of learning, ensure the balance between financing and selected development ambitions, foster equity and reduce disparities, and make the management and governance in the education sector more effective. The PIET outlines three priorities to develop the education sector in Chad:
- Continue to deliver quality universal primary education by including the first years of secondary education to basic education and by reducing disparities.
- Improve the quality and relevance of learning at all levels.
- Foster governance of the education sector by improving management, coordination, and deconcentration.

Economy
Oil and agriculture are mainstays of Chad’s economy. Oil provides about 60% of export revenues, while cotton, cattle, livestock, and gum arabic provide the bulk of Chad’s non-oil export earnings. Chad joined the list of oil-producing countries in 2003 and since then its economy has been heavily dependent on oil. The economy, previously agrarian, saw per capita GDP grow from about $497 in 2001/02 (which was less than half of the average in Sub-Saharan Africa) to about $967 in 2014. The services sector contributes less than one-third of GDP and has attracted foreign investment mostly through telecommunications and banking. Nearly all of Chad’s fuel is provided by one domestic refinery, and unanticipated shutdowns occasionally result in shortages. The country regulates the price of domestic fuel.
Despite the severe fiscal adjustment, the overall fiscal deficit (cash basis) increased slightly from 4.4% of non-oil GDP in 2014 to 4.9% in 2016. This was financed through treasury bonds in the regional debt market, IMF disbursement, and budgetary support from donors. The increase in public debt has led to the risk of debt distress: hard currency rationing and substantial fiscal consolidation had reduced the external current account deficit from 11.3% of GDP in 2015 to 5.2% in 2017, but Chad’s official reserves continue to fall, representing barely a month’s worth of imports as of 2017.
In 2018, economic policy will be driven by efforts that started in 2016 to reverse the recession and to repair damage to public finances and exports. The government is implementing an emergency action plan to counterbalance the drop in oil revenue and to diversify the economy. Chad’s national development plan (NDP) cost just over $9 billion with a financing gap of $6.7 billion. The NDP emphasized the importance of private sector participation in Chad’s development, as well as the need to improve the business environment, particularly in priority sectors such as mining and agriculture.
The Government of Chad reached a deal with Glencore and four other banks on the restructuring of a $1.45 billion oil-backed loan in February 2018, after a long negotiation. The new terms include an extension of the maturity to 2030 from 2022, a two-year grace period on principal repayments, and a lower interest rate of LIBOR plus 2% – down from LIBOR plus 7.5%. Chad had already cut public spending to try to meet the terms of the IMF program, but that prompted strikes and protests in a country where nearly 40% of the population lives below the poverty line. Multinational partners, such as the African Development Bank, the EU, and the World Bank are likely to continue budget support in 2018, but Chad will remain at high debt risk, given its dependence on oil revenue and pressure to spend on subsidies and security.
In the short-term, the government needs to raise more fiscal revenue while reducing expenditure. Prospects are difficult because oil prices remain low, export volumes constrained, and the government needs to repay the Glencore oil sales advances. In the medium-term, the establishment of a stabilization fund, economic diversification, and ways to mitigate regional security risks need to remain high on the agenda, as well as providing military escorts to secure selected trade corridors that allow movement of goods and people. Instability in oil revenue complicates fiscal management and budgetary planning, and regional instability is affecting economic activity by impacting trade, public expenditure, and private investment.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$29.64 billion (2017 est.)
$29.47 billion (2016 est.)
$31.49 billion (2015 est.)
note: data are in 2017 dollars
GDP (official exchange rate):
$9.74 billion (2017 est.)
GDP – real growth rate:
0.6% (2017 est.)
-6.4% (2016 est.)
1.8% (2015 est.)
GDP – per capita (PPP):
$2,400 (2017 est.)
$2,500 (2016 est.)
$2,700 (2015 est.)
Gross national saving:
17.8% of GDP (2017 est.)
7.5% of GDP (2016 est.)
14.6% of GDP (2015 est.)
GDP – composition, by sector of origin:
agriculture: 59%
industry: 14.1%
services: 27% (2017 est.)
Agriculture – products:
cotton, sorghum, millet, peanuts, sesame, corn, rice, potatoes, onions, cassava (manioc, tapioca), cattle, sheep, goats, camels
Industries:
oil, cotton textiles, brewing, natron (sodium carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction materials.
Population below poverty line:
46.7% (2011 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $1.178 billion
expenditures: $1.522 billion (2017 est.)
Agriculture
Chad’s primary non-oil exports include cotton, gum Arabic, and livestock. By most estimates, 80 percent of Chad’s population relies on agriculture, livestock, or fishing. The market is primarily domestic. There is the little value-added production of agricultural products. However, the Government of Chad has prioritized industrialization of agriculture and boosting exports in its 2016 – 2020 national development plan in order to diversify the economy to reduce its dependence on oil exports and increase tax revenue.
Leading sub-sectors in agriculture include farm tractors; fertilizers; seeds; farming implements; irrigation systems; harvesting equipment; gum Arabic; cotton; livestock and livestock products; sesame seeds; peanuts, cashews, dates, and dried fruit; and shea butter, moringa, spirulina, and other natural products. The Government of Chad is determined to improve agricultural production in Chad through modernization and mechanization. There is demand for agricultural equipment and inputs from both the government and private sector. Lack of access to capital is a constraint in this area.
Chad is the second largest global producer of premium grade gum Arabic. Chadian producers currently sell to intermediaries and wholesalers to export to the United States, China, and Europe. Producers are interested in exporting directly to the United States. Livestock, including cattle, camels, and goats, present manifold opportunities for investment, particularly the construction of feedlots and slaughterhouses meeting the standards of the World Organization for Animal Health, as well as improving laboratories and resuscitating Chad’s capacity to produce animal vaccines. The Chadian poultry industry poses opportunities in the areas of pharmaceuticals and nutrition.
Chad is one of the largest suppliers of the sesame seed. White and black sesame seeds are grown in southern and central Chad. Other foods, e.g. mangos, cashews, peanuts, and dates, are widely grown in Chad but are not packaged, processed, or exported. This presents an opportunity for U.S. investment. There is a growing market for natural products from Chad. At least one U.S. company is exporting Chadian shea butter to the United States and China. There is a small-scale production of moringa, spirulina, karaya gum, hibiscus, and other natural products. Chadian producers and intermediaries seek new markets for these goods, and there are opportunities for export and investment in value-added processing and packaging.
Electricity access:
population without electricity: 10,477,071
electrification – total population: 4%
electrification – urban areas: 14%
electrification – rural areas: 1% (2013)
Electricity – production:
215 million kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – consumption:
200 million kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – exports:
0 million kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – imports:
0 billion kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – installed generating capacity:
47,000 kW (2015 est.)
Electricity – from fossil fuels:
100% of total installed capacity (2015 est.)
Electricity – from nuclear fuels:
0% of total installed capacity (2015 est.)
Telephones – fixed lines:
total subscriptions: 14,000
subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: less than 1 (July 2016 est.)
Telephones – mobile cellular:
total: 2,659,951
total: 6,231,009
subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 52 (July 2016 est.)
.td
Internet users:
total: 592,623
percent of population: 5.0% (July 2016 est.)
Manufacturing
The industrial sector accounted for about 38.6% of GDP in 2005. Because it lacks power and adequate transportation, Chad is industrially one of the least developed countries in Africa. Cotton processing is the largest activity. Cottonseed oil is processed at Sarh and Moundou. Coton-Tchad, the state-owned company that produces and exports cotton, is the country’s main manufacturing concern, and many of its subsidiary operations (including oil and soap) were being privatized in 2002.
Manufacturing in Chad was dominated by agribusiness and Cotontchad in particular. Next in importance were the National Sugar Company of Chad (Société Nationale Sucrière du Tchad—SONASUT), the Chadian Textile Company (Société Tchadienne de Textile—STT), the Logone Breweries (Brasseries du Logone—BdL), and the Cigarette Factory of Chad (Manufacture des Cigarettes du Tchad—MCT). Observers estimated that these five industries generated some 20 percent of GDP. Of lesser importance were the Farcha Slaughterhouse (Abattoir Frigorifique de Farcha), the Industrial Agricultural Equipment Company (Société Industrielle de Matériel Agricole du Tchad—SIMAT), and Soft Drinks of Chad (Boissons Gazeuses du Tchad—BGT).
The past decade has seen slowdowns in measured labor productivity growth across a broad swath of developed economies. Aggregate labor productivity growth in the U.S. averaged 1.3% per year from 2005 to 2015, less than half of the 2.8% average annual growth rate is sustained over 1995-2004. Slowdowns are still observed in the U.S. and in 24 of the 29 countries in the OECD data if growth rates from 2008- 09 are excluded from the totals, and Cette, Fernald, and Mojon (forthcoming) marshal considerable evidence that the slowdowns started before the onset of the Great Recession. The drops in productivity growth have struck some as paradoxical, given the seemingly brisk pace of technological progress and plethora of new products that have been introduced and diffused throughout the world during the slowdown period.
In terms of steps to improve the productivity growth rate environment, the increasing laggardness of non-frontier firms in industries might be the most amenable to policy. Many elements affect the rates and depths at which best technologies and practices diffuse through industries. These include the presence and efficacy of “eco-systems” where the information and inputs necessary to implement better ways of doing things are readily available. They also involve competition policies to shape markets that encourage and reward more efficient firms, and factor markets that allow those more efficient companies to hire the inputs necessary for growth while at the same time allowing persistent underperformers to shrink and if need be, exit.
Banking and Finance
Chad’s financial system is underdeveloped. There are no capital markets or money markets in Chad. A limited number of financial instruments are available to the private sector, including letters of credit, short and medium-term loans, foreign exchange services, and long-term savings instruments.
Most large businesses maintain accounts with foreign banks and borrow money outside of Chad. There are ATMs in some major hotels, N’Djamena airport, and in some neighborhoods of N’Djamena. There is no effective regulatory system to encourage or facilitate portfolio investments. Although there is no stock market in Chad, there are two nascent stock markets in the region.
Chad’s banking sector is small and continues to streamline lending practices and reduce the volume of bad debt. Chad’s four largest banks have been privatized. The former Banque Internationale pour l’Afrique au Tchad (BIAT) became a part of Togo-based Ecobank, the former Banque Tchadienne de Credit et de Depot was re-organized as the Societe General Tchad, the former Financial Bank became part of Togo-based Orabank, and the former Banque de Developpement du Tchad (BDT) was reorganized as Commercial Bank Tchad (CBT), in partnership with Cameroon-based Commercial Bank of Cameroon. There are two Libyan banks in Chad, BCC (formerly Banque Libyenne) and Banque Sahelo-Saharienne pour l’Investissement et le Commerce (BSCIC), along with one Nigerian bank (UBA, United Bank for Africa).
Chad shares a common central bank system with the members of the CEMAC – the Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale (BEAC). As a CEMAC member, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon – the Central African Economic Bank (BEAC, Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale), headquartered in Yaounde, Cameroon. The government does not restrict converting funds associated with an investment (including remittances of investment capital, earnings, loan repayments, lease payments, royalties) into a freely usable currency at legal market-clearing rates. There are no restrictions on repatriating these funds, although there are some limits associated with transferring funds.
Tourism
Chad has always been someplace where travelers wave goodbye to their comfort zone and say hello to adventure. Even when it is safe to visit, which sadly it is currently not, the art of travel here is demanding in every sense of the word. This, though, is part of the country’s allure, an opportunity to break emphatically away from all that you know, and come to a place that promises experiences, good and bad, that happen nowhere else. But if Chad is such a demanding place to travel, Picture sublime oases hiding in the northern deserts, stampeding herds of wildlife running through national parks and deep blues awaiting boats on Lake Chad – put simply, when Chad is accessible it’s a country and an experience that can never be forgotten.
Places of Attraction
The sprawling Zakouma National Park is the main and the most popular tourist attraction in Chad. It lies southeast of N’Djamena, about 500 miles (800 km) from the capital, and is about 305,000 hectares in size. Civil wars and poaching once ravaged the area, but it has since been rehabilitated thanks to the efforts of the local government and the EU.
Lake Chad was once the focal point of the salt trade in Africa. In its heyday, Lake Chad was one of the world’s biggest freshwater lakes, but it has slowly started shrinking and drying up. The worst Sahel drought caused the lake to vanish completely in 1984.
The canyons of the Ennedi Desert are a remarkable sight, especially since the nearby Tibesti Mountains are generally off-limits to visitors. Some of its attractions include stunning slot canyons, prehistoric cave paintings, and mysterious rock formations.
Officially known as Musée National N’Djamena, the National Museum is situated in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, near Avenue Felix Eboue. Established on October 6, 1962, it was transferred to the old town hall near the Place de l’Independence a few years later.
N’Djamena Historic Quarter; Chad’s capital boasts a remarkable historic quarter which is home to the vibrant daily market where travelers can purchase colorful jewelry, accessories and locally made rugs.