The private sector
is key

With annual growth of around 7%, Côte d'Ivoire has changed significantly in fifteen years. To sustain this momentum and create more jobs, substantial investment is now needed in entrepreneurship, industrialisation, processing and the development of the country's resources.

​​​​​​​Côte d'Ivoire's unemployment rate in urban areas was estimated at 9% in 2022. This figure varies widely depending on the sources and calculation methods used. And if we take into account rural areas and the number of people not actively looking for work*, unemployment is much higher.

From the moment he came to power, Alassane Ouattara developed a job creation strategy based on economic growth and private sector development. Hence the country's considerable openness to foreign investors and its determined efforts to improve the business climate (making it easier to set up a business, creating a single window, setting up a commercial court, etc.). As a result, Côte d'Ivoire moved up the World Bank's Doing Business ranking from 177th out of 185 countries in 2012 to 110th out of 190 countries in 2020.

The aim of this strategy is to implement an economic policy geared towards employment. This entails strengthening the education and training sector (compulsory schooling, reforming vocational training), encouraging entrepreneurship (particularly among young people and women), developing infrastructure and supporting growth sectors, while building on the economy's traditional mainstays: agriculture (16.7% of GDP and 45% of the working population), industry (22% of GDP and 10% of the working population) and services (53.7% of GDP and 44% of the workforce).

The 2021-2025 National DeveSMEs, which provide the most jobs in Côte d'Ivoire as they do elsewhere, are being nurtured by the government. In 2024, there are 8,000 SMEs receiving government support, according to the Director General of the SME Development Single Window (Guichet unique de développement des PME - GUDE-PME). In other words, the strategy that aims to create 80,000 SMEs over five years and 705,000 jobs, with funding to the tune of 160 billion CFA francs, will provide funding and coaching for small and medium-sized enterprises.lopment Plan has clearly set its sights on industrialisation and the local processing of raw materials. The recent discovery of large deposits of oil and rare minerals should also support long-term growth and create additional jobs.

REAL RESULTS

For the world's leading cocoa producer, agribusiness is an obvious first step. However, the government also wants to develop the textile and light manufacturing sectors. Incentives being put in place to attract investment include tax reductions, easier access to credit, and vocational training programmes to improve workers' skills. In June 2024, the government raised 108.2 billion CFA francs to finance the Diversification, Industrial Acceleration, Competitiveness and Employment programme (DAICE).

In practical terms, government action spans all sectors of activity. For example, nine agropole projects, i.e. the creation of agricultural growth poles, are planned throughout the country between now and 2030. The aim is ‘to achieve food sovereignty for the country and create lots of jobs’, according to the Ministry of State, the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Farming. Two are already operational (the Bélier agropole and the Northern agropole). The North-East agropole will be completed in 2024 and two others, North-West and Daloa, will be researched from 2025. In the Bélier region, the agropole has led to the rehabilitation of 25 dams, the development of 2,000 hectares of rice, seven rural markets, the creation of 24 storage facilities and two groupage centres, as well as the training of nearly 800 young people.

Similarly, the government aims to make Côte d'Ivoire an ‘integrated regional hub for the textile industry by 2030, generating 61,000 skilled jobs’, said government spokesman and communications minister Amadou Coulibaly after the Council of Ministers meeting on 12 June 2024. The tourism sector, which contributes 7.3% of GDP, is another priority for developing employment. Already the third most popular destination for business tourism in Africa, after Nigeria and Morocco, Côte d'Ivoire is greatly increasing its hospitality capacity - the African Cup of Nations made a major contribution to this - and is keen to develop tourism within the country. The drive for sectoral diversification also extends to culture: on 18 May 2024, the government launched a 1 billion CFA franc fund dedicated to artists, who will be able to benefit from loans of between 1 and 20 million CFA francs via the Agence Emploi Jeunes (youth employment agency) to ‘bring the most promising projects to life’.