Cote d’Ivoire
Location:
Western Africa,
Area:
total: 322,463 sq km
land: 318,003 sq km
water: 4,460 sq km
Capital City;
Yamoussoukro
Land boundaries:
total: 3,458 km
border countries (5):
Guinea 816 km
Liberia 778 km
Ghana 720 km
Mali 599 km
EthiBurkina Faso 545 km
Coastline:515 km
Total: 3973 km

Cote d’Ivoire


Climate:
tropical along coast, semiarid in far north;
three seasons –
warm and dry (November to March),
hot and dry (March to May),
hot and wet (June to October)
Terrain:
mostly flat to undulating plains;
mountains in northwest
Elevation:
mean elevation: 250 m
elevation extremes: lowest point: Gulf of Guinea 0 m
highest point: Monts Nimba 1,752 m
Natural resources:
petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore,
cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand,
clay, cocoa beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower
Land use:
agricultural land: 64.8%
arable land 9.1%; permanent crops 14.2%; permanent pasture 41.5%
forest: 32.7%
other: 2.5% (2011 est.)
Irrigated land:
730 sq km (2012)
Population – distribution:
the population is primarily located in the forested south, with the highest concentration of people residing in and around the cities on the Atlantic coast; most of the northern savanna remains sparsely populated with higher concentrations located along transportation corridors
Natural hazards:
coast has heavy surf and no natural harbors;
during the rainy season torrential flooding is possible.

People and Society
The country’s population is 24,184,810in July 2017. Ivory Coast’s first national census in 1975 counted 6.7 million inhabitants. According to 2012 government survey, the fertility rate was 5.0 children born per woman, with 3.7 in urban areas and 6.3 in rural areas. Cote d’Ivoire’s population is likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future because almost 60% of the populace is younger than 25, the total fertility rate is holding steady at about 3.5 children per woman, and contraceptive use is under 20%. The country will need to improve education, healthcare, and gender equality in order to turn its large and growing youth cohort into human capital.
Following its independence in 1960, Cote d’Ivoire’s stability and the blossoming of its labor-intensive cocoa and coffee industries in the southwest made it an attractive destination for migrants from other parts of the country and its neighbors, particularly Burkina Faso. The HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY administration continued the French colonial policy of encouraging labor immigration by offering liberal land ownership laws. Foreigners from West Africa, Europe (mainly France), and Lebanon composed about 25% of the population by 1998.
The ongoing economic decline since the 1980s and the power struggle after HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY’s death in 1993 ushered in the politics of “Ivoirite,” institutionalizing an Ivoirian identity that further marginalized northern Ivoirians and scapegoated immigrants. The hostile Muslim north-Christian south divide snowballed into a 2002 civil war, pushing tens of thousands of foreign migrants, Liberian refugees, and Ivoirians to flee to war-torn Liberia or other regional countries and more than a million people to be internally displaced. Subsequently, violence following the contested 2010 presidential election prompted some 250,000 people to seek refuge in Liberia and other neighboring countries and again internally displaced as many as a million people. By July 2012, the majority had returned home, but the ongoing inter-communal tension and armed conflict continue to force people from their homes.
Population:
24,184,810(July 2017 est.)
Nationality:
Ivoirian(s)
Ethnic groups:
Akan 28.8%, Voltaique or Gur 16.1%, Northern Mande 14.5%, Kru 8.5%, Southern Mande 6.9%, unspecified 0.9%, non-Ivoirian 42.3% (2014 est.)
Languages:
French (official), 60 native dialects of which Dioula is the most widely spoken
Religions:
Muslim 42.9%, Catholic 17.2%, Evangelical 11.8%, Methodist 1.7%, other Christian 3.2%, animist 3.6%, other religion 0.5%, none 19.1%
The population of Cote d’Ivoire is ethnically diverse. More than sixty indigenous ethnic groups are often cited, although this number may be reduced to seven clusters of ethnic groups by classifying small units together on the basis of common cultural and historical characteristics. These may be reduced to four major cultural regions—the East Atlantic (primarily Akan), West Atlantic (primarily Krou), Voltaic, and Mande—differentiated in terms of the environment, economic activity, language, and overall cultural characteristics.
In Cote d’lvoire, as across Africa, national boundaries reflect the impact of colonial rule as much as present-day political reality, bringing nationalism into conflict with centuries of evolving ethnic identification. Each of Cote d’lvoire’s large cultural groupings has more members outside the nation than within. As a result, many Ivoirians have strong cultural and social ties with people in neighboring countries. Most representatives of East Atlantic cultures are Akan peoples, speakers of languages within the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
Traditional Krou societies were organized into villages relying on hunting and gathering for subsis- tence and descent groups tracing relationships through male forebears. They rarely formed centralized chiefdoms. The largest Krou population in Cote d’lvoire is the Bete. In the north, cultural differences are greater than in the south. Descendants of early Mande conquerors occupy territory in the northwest, stretching into northern Guinea and Mali. The nation of Mali took its name from one of the largest of these societies, the Malinke. The Mande peoples including the Malinke, Bambara, Juula, and smaller, related groups made up about 17 percent of the population of Cote d’lvoire. To the east of the Mande are Voltaic peoples. Both historical periods are still in evidence in two forms of social organization found in the area one based on small descent groups and the other on more complex confederations similar to those of the Mande.
French is official, and there are 81 living indigenous languages, and one that is now extinct. The Dioula dialect of Bambara is the most widely spoken one. Other language groups include the Gur languages, the Senufo languages, the Kru languages (including the Bété languages, Dida, Nyabwa, Wè, and Western Krahn), and the Kwa languages (Baoulé and Anyin are the most used). The economic development and relative prosperity of Ivory Coast fostered huge demographic shifts during the 20th century.
In 1922, an estimated 100,000 out of 1.6 million (or 6 percent) of people in Côte d’Ivoire were Muslims. By contrast, at independence, their share of the population had increased rapidly, and Muslims were moving southward to the cocoa-producing areas and the southern cities. By 1998, Muslims constituted a majority in the north of the country, and approximately 38.6 percent of the total population. This was a significantly larger population than the next largest religious group, Christians, who constituted approximately 29.1 percent of the total. In earlier decades, this shift was mainly due to large-scale immigration from neighboring countries of the interior, that has been going on since colonial times and continued to be promoted during the Houphouet-Boigny era. Since the 1990s, the widening fertility gap between different religious groups has continued to tilt the demographic balance in favor of Muslims although immigration has become less important.

Education
The education system comprised three stages: primary school lasted six years, leading to a certificate of primary studies; secondary school lasted seven years, leading to a certificate or baccalauréat. University education, available only in Abidjan, culminated in a university degree. A large number of technical and teacher-training institutions also provided postprimary and postsecondary education. In 1980 approximately 14 percent of primary schools and 29 percent of secondary schools were private. Most public schools were tuition free, although students paid an entrance fee and bought uniforms. Most supplies were free, and some students received government scholarships, usually in return for a period of government employment after graduation.
Children entered primary school at the age of seven or eight and passed through six grades, divided into preparatory, elementary, and intermediate levels. In the first six months, students mastered French, the language of instruction. Classes in reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught, gradually supplemented by history, geography, natural sciences, music, art, and physical education. Rural schools also required students to work in school gardens and learn basic agricultural methods. Standard school-leaving exams led to the certificate of elementary education (certificated’étude primaries élémentaires–CEPE) and determined entrance to secondary institutions.
Most of those preparing for university attended a collège or lycée, both of which included seven years of study divided into two cycles. Significant differences between these two institutions almost disappeared in the decades following their introduction by the French, but the lycée was generally administered by the national government and the collège by the municipal government with national funding. After the first cycle or four years of secondary school, students took exams and were awarded the certificate of the lower cycle of secondary study. This qualification generally allowed them to continue at the collège or lycée, enter a teacher-training institution, or find an entry-level job in commerce or government. After the second cycle of three years of study, graduates earned the baccalauréat, which indicated a level of learning roughly equivalent to one or two years of university study in the United States. In Côte d’Ivoire, as in France, it qualified a student for university entrance.
Complementary courses were the most common type of alternative secondary education, administered as four-year programs to improve the academic education of those who did not qualify for collège or lycée. Complementary courses were established during the 1950s, when expanding educational opportunities was a high priority, and they were located throughout the country to compensate for the urban bias in secondary education. Complementary courses often provided a combination of academic and practical training, leading to an elementary certificate (brevet élémentaire–BE) or the BEPC, and enabled some students to enter the second cycle at a collège or lycée, or a vocational training institution.
Higher Education
The National University of Côte d’Ivoire, which was founded as the Center for Higher Education at Abidjan in 1959 and became the University of Abidjan in 1964, had an enrollment of 18,732 in 1987. Of this number, about 10,000 were Ivoirians and 3,200 were women. Still heavily dependent on French assistance, it included faculties of law, sciences, and letters and schools of agriculture, public works, administration, and fine arts. Other institutions of higher learning, known as grandes écoles, awarded certificates of training in specialized fields in cooperation with, but not as part of, the national university..

Economy
Côte d’Ivoire is the largest economy in French-speaking West Africa and the third largest in West Africa as a whole (after Nigeria and Ghana). The country’s gross national income (GNI) per capita was estimated at US$1 420 in 2015. The country has a wealth of natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand, clay, hydropower, etc. Natural resources have played a key role in the country’s economy, especially fossil energy and ores.
Cote d’Ivoire is heavily dependent on agriculture and related activities, which engage roughly two-thirds of the population. Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans and a significant producer and exporter of coffee and palm oil. Consequently, the economy is highly sensitive to fluctuations in international prices for these products and to climatic conditions. Cocoa, oil, and coffee are the country’s top export revenue earners, but the country has targeted agricultural processing of cocoa, cashews, mangoes, and other commodities as a high priority. Mining gold and exporting electricity are growing industries outside agriculture.
To combat economic difficulties, the country pursued important structural reforms from the 1980s. However, these reforms were insufficient to stimulate strong and sustainable growth. Throughout the 1990s, Côte d’Ivoire carried on with reforms and liberalized its economy. This included the launch of investment programmes, in particular into infrastructure. These reforms stimulated growth, but at a lower rate compared to the 1970s. Throughout the 2000s, the civil war (2002-11) hampered the economic potential of the country until 2011.
Following the end of more than a decade of civil conflict in 2011, Cote d’Ivoire has experienced a boom in foreign investment and economic growth. In June 2012, the IMF and the World Bank announced $4.4 billion in debt relief for Cote d’Ivoire under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. For the last 5 years, Cote d’Ivoire’s growth rate has been among the highest in the world.
Since 2012, Côte d’Ivoire’s economic performance has been impressive, and in striking contrast with the last ten years of political instability. Political normalisation, budget support policy, debt reduction, and reforms to strengthen the business climate have led to an acceleration of economic activity. Driven by investment and consumption, GDP grew on average by 9% per year during the period 2012-15, reversing a 10-year decline in per capita income. The country had a nominal GDP of about US$32bn in 2015, making it one of the largest economies in West Africa. Although agriculture has lost its central role in Côte d’Ivoire’s economy, its share remains important. The country is still the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans, and main producer and exporter of coffee and palm oil, with 64.8% of land used for agricultural purposes.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$96.27 billion (2017 est.)
$89.44 billion (2016 est.)
$83.04 billion (2015 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$39.91 billion (2017 est.)
GDP – real growth rate:
7.6% (2017 est.)
7.7% (2016 est.)
8.9% (2015 est.)
GDP – per capita (PPP):
$3,900 (2017 est.)
$3,700 (2016 est.)
$3,500 (2015 est.)
Gross national saving:
16.5% of GDP (2017 est.)
18.5% of GDP (2016 est.)
17.5% of GDP (2015 est.)
GDP – composition, by sector of origin:
agriculture: 17.4%
industry: 28.8%
services: 53.8% (2017 est.)
Agriculture – products:
coffee, cocoa beans, bananas, palm kernels, corn, rice, cassava (manioc, tapioca), sweet potatoes, sugar, cotton, rubber; timber
Industries:
foodstuffs, beverages; wood products, oil refining, gold mining, truck and bus assembly, textiles, fertilizer, building materials, electricity
Population below poverty line:
46.3% (2015 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $7.121 billion
expenditures: $8.886 billion (2017 est.)


Agriculture
Although decreasing, resources still represent 5% of the country’s GDP. Agriculture is also crucial for the country in terms of revenues and employment. It accounted for around 25% of GDP in 2015. The country is a member of the WAEMU, an eightcountry3 customs, and currency union in which all members use the CFAF. The Union includes 112 million inhabitants and has a common trade policy and external tariff. The banking sector of member countries is regulated by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) which also maintains a fixed
exchange rate with the euro.
Côte d’Ivoire is also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) made up of 15 countries and with almost 360 million inhabitants in 2016.5 The community promotes economic integration and regional peace and stability. ECOWAS has an economic partnership with the European Union (EU) covering goods and development cooperation. The country is the EU’s largest trading partner in SSA.
In 1960, the largest contributors to GDP were agriculture (48%) followed by services (39%) and industry (13%). In 2015, agriculture represented only 24% of GDP, and services increased to 55% of GDP. Industry’s share of GDP has almost doubled during the period (from 13% to 21%). There has been a significant change in GDP sector contribution, showing that Côte d’Ivoire’s economy has diversified over time, reducing its dependence on agriculture and exposure to the volatility of international markets. Côte d’Ivoire’s primary sector is composed of food crops (12% of GDP), export crops (11%), and animal husbandry and peaches (2%). The secondary sector is driven by petroleum (7.2%), followed by the food industry (7.1%) and extractive products (6.7%).
The Netherlands is the main trade partner of Côte d’Ivoire in 2015 (receiving 12% of total exports, mostly in cocoa), followed by the US and Belgium, with 8% and 7% respectively. Main destination partners of Côte d’Ivoire’s petroleum products are the US, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, with US$545m in exports revenue in 2015. Côte d’Ivoire exports to its partners mainly agriculture products. Besides the fluctuation (linked to international price variations), the contribution of agriculture to total exports is on average 50% for the 2000-15 period.
As a share of agriculture products, cocoa makes up 43% of Côte d’Ivoire’s total exports, followed by fruit products (8%), and oil and petroleum (5%). Cocoa generated more than US$5bn in revenues for Côte d’Ivoire in 2015. With regard to imports, 65% of Côte d’Ivoire’s imported products originate from 10 countries of which nine are not in Africa. Imports are mainly from Nigeria (15%) followed by France and China, with 14% and 12% respectively.
Electricity access:
population without electricity: 15,000,000
electrification – total population: 26%
electrification – urban areas: 42%
electrification – rural areas: 8% (2013)
Electricity – production:
8.262 billion kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – consumption:
5.669 billion kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – exports:
872 million kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – imports:
23 million kWh (2015 est.)
Electricity – installed generating capacity:
1.9 million kW (2016 est.)
Electricity – from fossil fuels:
66.9% of total installed capacity (2015 est.)
Electricity – from nuclear fuels:
0% of total installed capacity (2015 est.)
Telephones – fixed lines:
total subscriptions: 289,108
subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 1 (July 2016 est.)
Telephones – mobile cellular:
total: 27,451,250
subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 114 (July 2016 est.)
Internet country code:
.ci
Internet users:
total: 6,297,676
percent of population: 26.5% (July 2016 est.)
Manufacturing and Industries
The major segments of Cote d’Ivoire’s industrial sector are energy, oil and gas processing, mining, manufacturing and food processing. Several major factors will continue to guide industrial growth. First, offshore discoveries of oil and gas deposits are now being aggressively explored and drilling operations have been successful. Downstream processing of oil is expanding through the refining operation in Abidjan, as well as bituminous production and the use of gas in electrical energy production. Côte d’Ivoire is now a net exporter of electricity. The oil industry is also actively developing and expanding its lubricants and bitumen production for greater export marketing.
Second, a major thrust is evident to convert parts of agricultural from direct export to processing. This is particularly evident in palm oil, rubber, cocoa, and cashew nuts, as well as lumber. According to Dagobert Banzio, minister of Commerce, processing is a major goal of the new government: “One of the main challenges of the agricultural exports is that the exported products are unprocessed. In the future, Côte d’Ivoire should develop its own processing industry. There are also transformed crop products, which are traditional like « attiéké » which is greatly demanded in sub-regions.”
Third, Cote d’Ivoire is rapidly developing its Free Zones in order to locally produce products for its ICT industries, notably telecom. Industry in Côte d’Ivoire: Manufacturing, Mining, Oil, and Gas Agriculture Industry. Finally, Cote d’Ivoire is now ready to return to its former status as the engine of growth in West Africa and its economic and business center. Since Cote d’Ivoire is the largest economy in the region, many industrial firms locate there as their export base to the rest of the region.
Doe example, Sotici, the leading plastic pipe manufacturer in Africa, exports to more than 26 countries. Sotici’s CEO, Ramzi Omais explains: “Sotici is an export-driven, international company and we export from to every place Mauretania to Chad. Only 20% of our business has been local since 1999. Before 1999 it was 50% local and 50% exports, but today it’s more than 80% exports.” Industry in Côte d’Ivoire: Manufacturing, Mining, Oil and Gas Agriculture Industry
One of the principal advantages for industrial companies is access to sound infrastructure and power. A dozen years of political instability and unrest has meant little investment in infrastructure, which is presently in a state of disrepair. This, too, is expected to be remedied over the next few years, as both the new government and international funding agencies pour funds into infrastructure development to support and expand the economy.
Challenges
One of the main challenges is security. In any country after a civil war, there is a lot of weapons in circulation—in both good and bad hands. Hence the security issues. This is expected to be a temporary problem, however, as the priority of the government is to restore order and to reconcile the dissident portions of the population.


Banking and Finance
Following years of economic stagnation and decline (economic growth averaging -0.4 percent for the 2000-2006 period) predominantly caused by the 2002-03 civil war and subsequent years of stalemate in the peace process, Côte d’Ivoire’s economy began to recover following 2007, experiencing an average of 3 percent growth in real GDP in the period 2008-10. However, the economy of Côte D’Ivoire was hard hit by the negative effects of the post-electoral crisis. In 2011 GDP growth declined to -4.7 percent but a gradual recovery is expected in with projected GDP growth at 8.1 and 7.0 percent respectively in 2012 and 2013.
The Ivorian financial sector has remained functional but has heavily suffered from the political and civil crisis. The cost of risk rose substantially, loan portfolios deteriorated and the banking system became less profitable. The banking system registered an 8 percent drop in healthy loans and a 44% rise in non-performing loans between the end of December 2010 and the end of June 2011. At last count, the banking sector consisted of 21 banks, five of which were domestic-owned. Domestic banks accounted for 21 percent of total assets and for their great majority liquidity levels remained below prudential levels. The government has been heavily involved in the sector, in an effort to prop up these institutions since the beginning of the conflict in 2002.
Progress has been recently made in restructuring undercapitalized banks and strengthening the banking system. Two of the five domestic banks, which had negative net worth at the end of June 2008, formulated recapitalization plans approved by the Banking Commission. One bank is currently under interim administration and the remaining two are being taken over by the government through conversion of illiquid deposits into share capital. As part of the WEAMU, Cote d’Ivoire shares an interbank market with all countries in the Union; similarly, bank licenses are valid for all of WAEMU’s countries.
The provision of financial services in rural areas, to small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the mobilization of long-term savings and the financing of long-term investment, is still deficient. The microfinance sector, in particular, has been severely affected by the lasting conflict and related lack of smooth funding flows. Approximately 90 percent of credit and savings activities are concentrated in just two cooperative networks, which currently face difficulties, and constitute a systematic risk for the microfinance sector. To reverse this trend, the Ministry of Finance issued a National Microfinance Policy at the end of 2007 along with a detailed Strategy and Action Plan for 2007-2015 aiming at achieving a viable, integrated and diversified microfinance sector with penetration over the whole country by 2015.
The mobile market in Cote d’Ivoire is very competitive and fragmented. In December 2008, Orange Cote d’Ivoire launched its new mobile money product, Orange Money., followed by MTN. Mobile phone subscription rate is high and has passed from 77 percent in 2007 to 76 percent in 2010. The Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM), headquartered in Abidjan, serves as the regional Stock Exchange for member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Trading is minimal despite 45 company listings. Stock market capitalization decreased from 33 percent in 2007 to 28 percent in 2010.
The regional and national fixed income market is still in its embryonic stage, with the Central Bank playing a significant role as one of the main issuing entities in the region. As of March 2013, Côte d’Ivoire received no sovereign rating from any of the three major credit rating agencies. In recent years, member countries have begun to finance their public spending by issuing treasury bills in lieu of central bank loans. The number of corporate issues is still limited. Similar to many other African countries, the country’s investor base is still dominated by commercial banks.
For its part, the insurance market has experienced remarkable growth, which has risen from 9% in 2009 to 13% in 2010. Still, major reform will be necessary to ensure that it is financially sustainable. As for pension funds, both the CNPS (private sector) and the CGRAE (public sector) incur sizable deficits and recent actuarial studies highlighted the need for urgent reforms.
Tourism
From the soaring grass-clad mountains of Mount Nimba in the north to the lagoons and roaring Atlantic waves of the south, the mist-topped rainforests where chimps live in the west to the sweeping plantations of cocoa and plantains in the east, the Ivory Coast represents one seriously huge slab of West Africa. Yes, the nation’s certainly had its fair share of troubles, with coups and military juntas and Ebola to name just three, but travelers do still come.
The come to hike the empty paths of Taï and Comoe, to sample spicy cassava and cashew curries between the mud-caked streets of Korhogo, to witness curious primates swinging in the trees, and experience the energy of Abidjan – the country’s great metropolis of more than four million. And then there are the beaches, fringed with age-stained French towns and colonial relics, sloping down to the sea in colors of yellow, white and, well, ivory!
Grand-Bassam proudly touting its UNESCO World Heritage tag, Grand-Bassam bursts forth from the Ivorian coast with the medley of elegant Parisian mansions and crafted colonial municipal buildings that are the Ancient Bassam district. Its capital Yamoussoukro boasts the world’s largest church, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, and is a tiny village transformed into the political capital of the country, very much at odds with the rest of the country. Its undulating countryside rises to Savannah in the north, mountains in the west and a long, languid coast along the Gulf of Guinea. The Comoe National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site, boasts hippo, crocodile, and antelope.
National parks
Côte d’Ivoire has nine national parks (Azagny, Como, Banco, Ta, Marahou, Peko, Mont Sangb, Ehotil islands, Abokouamkro) which cover an area of 1,730,550 ha, that is nearly 6% of the total surface of the country. These parks are rich in rare species as well as species in process of extinction.
The animalist Park of Abokouamkro: Located at 60 km from Yamoussoukro, this park extends on a surface of 21.000 ha. It is of easy access. One can discover their elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceroses. The national park of Banco: Located at the heart of Abidjan, in the edge of the national northern highway, it is a single example in Africa of forest enclave downtown, with wood species. The park of Azagny: Located at 100 km of Abidjan to the mouth of the Bandama river, this park extends on 19,400 ha. The vegetation consists of marshy savannas strewn with palm trees.
The national park of Como: This park, created in 1968, was initially called Reerve of Bouna because located in the region of Bouna. It is the largest park in West Africa. Hospitality establishment was raised in the surrounding villages. The aquatic park of the Ehotil islands: This park is located at the border of the Aby lagoon, in the area of Adiak in the south-east of Côte d’Ivoire. The Park of Marahou: This park extends on a surface of 101,000 ha and is located in the region of Bouafl. The park of Marahou offers to its visitors an environment of quality and has been planned in a way to ensure a perfect welcome.