Author: OBG Admin

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

Sustainable cocoa: Public and private sector initiatives are engineering a favourable environmental and economic outlook

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  The sustainability of cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire has become one of the top priorities of both public and private stakeholders. Chief among the segment’s concerns are increasing the incomes of cocoa farmers and achieving a more equitable distribution of the value generated by the global cocoa industry. Other sustainability initiatives key to the public agenda include those intended to combat plant diseases and reverse the impact of deforestation. Pricing Agreement Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana imposed a fixed premium in July 2019 of $400

Daouda Coulibaly-Managing Director-Société Ivoirienne de Banque

Positive trend: Rising demand encourages growth of e-commerce services and sparks competition among retailers

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Côte d’Ivoire’s burgeoning middle class and economic growth has supported the steady development of the retail sector in recent years. According to the World Bank, the share of Ivorians living on less than $1.90 per day fell from 34% in 2011 to 28% in 2015, the most recent year for which this information is available. In the wake of economic progress and improved political stability, the country has seen the expansion of shopping malls and supermarkets. Moreover, the rising number of internet users, which

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Rise and grind: Benefitting from new incentives, investment pledges made in 2019 are set to significantly boost raw cocoa processing

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Côte d’Ivoire has recently attracted a raft of investments that are set to increase the country’s capacity to process its raw agricultural production. These follow government initiatives to develop the agro-industrial segment and boost local value addition, which are among the country’s top economic goals. Cocoa Grinding Agro-industrial companies involved in cocoa have made some of the largest recent investments in Côte d’Ivoire’s processing capacity. In March 2019 Swiss chocolatier Barry Callebaut inaugurated a new cocoa-grinding unit in Abidjan to increase the company’s production

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Going places: Continuing road works are integral to economic growth

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Roads are a key component of Côte d’Ivoire’s transport infrastructure – not only for its substantial population, estimated to exceed 25m, but also for the transportation of goods, as roads handle the vast majority of total internal cargo volume. While Côte d’Ivoire boasts one of West Africa’s most expansive road networks and has benefitted from the rapid development of its construction sector (see Construction chapter), the country still grapples with a number of incumbent issues that are shared across the region. Historic Shortfalls Within Côte d’Ivoire, the maintenance, rehabilitation and expansion of the road network has regularly faced delays. A key factor in these

George Richani-CEO-Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

Digital drive: Both the public and private sectors are working to transfer services online to boost efficiency and security

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Côte d’Ivoire’s has made significant progress towards digitalisation in both the public and private sectors. The government has recently achieved milestones in its initiatives to digitalise government processes and services. Building on the progress achieved in 2019, the government migrated procedures such as those related to taxation and migration online in early 2020. Meanwhile, banks continue to lead digitalisation in the private sector as online payments become increasingly popular. The country’s digitalisation drive is set to accelerate further as a result of the Covid-19

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

Meeting demand: Hotel operators continue to expand their presence in Abidjan and throughout secondary locations

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Supported by strong economic growth and the government’s ambition to make Côte d’Ivoire a regional centre for business and conference tourism, the hotel industry has expanded rapidly in the West African nation over the past few years. While this expansion bodes well for the industry in the long term, the first half of 2020 saw fewer visitor arrivals – and therefore lower numbers of occupied rooms – due to the spread of Covid-19 and the resulting worldwide travel restrictions. Abidjan Expansion According to the

Chaim Zach-Managing Director and CEO-Agric International Technology and Trade; Kabiru Rabiu-Group Executive Director-BUA Group; and Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed-Managing Director

Close the gap: Public-private cooperation to align curricula with the job market

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Like many other countries in Africa, Côte d’Ivoire is working to address a gap between the skills taught in schools and those demanded in the job market. To this end, the authorities are bringing training in line with the needs of the economy and employers. With the economy expanding quickly, prompting a number of international firms to invest and start operations, the need is becoming more acute. Mismatch The education system was severely affected by the political crisis that ended in 2011, and years of underinvestment have resulted in difficulties in keeping up with the evolving skills sought by private sector employers. “There is

Daniel Asare-Kyei-CEO-Esoko; Curtis Vanderpuije-CEO-ExpressPay; and Daniel Marfo-General Manager-Zipline Ghana

Expanded access: Universal coverage is rolled out alongside facility upgrades

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  After an 18-month pilot phase with 108,469 students, Ivorian authorities began the wider rollout of the universal health coverage (couverture maladie universelle, CMU) programme to the broader population in October 2019. The project is a milestone for Côte d’Ivoire’s health care system, where less than 10% of the population has adequate health coverage. It is also expected to boost local pharmaceutical manufacturing. Universal Cover Monitored by the National Health Insurance Fund (Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Maladie, CNAM), the CMU was launched in April 2017 with a student-oriented pilot phase. After the pilot programme was successfully completed, the authorities began the wider rollout in 2019, with

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

Navigating treaties: A guide for Ivorian companies and banks on loans contracted from foreign banking institutions

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  The purpose of this article is to specify the tax regime applicable in each of the situations outlined below. Ivorian Companies The following articles apply to loans contracted by Ivorian firms from foreign banks. RIT: Interest on loans paid by an Ivorian firm to a foreign bank is in principle subject to withholding tax under the receivable income tax (RIT) at the ordinary rate of 18% in Côte d’Ivoire. The application of the above rate, however, depends on the existence or not of a

George Richani-CEO-Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

New procedures: Settlement of investment disputes qualifying under the Investment Code

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  The policy pursued by Côte d’Ivoire’s government has its legal counterpart in the promotion of private investment. The policy adapts to the changing international economic environment, reflected by the Investment Code adopted in 2012, which was subsequently replaced by the 2018 Investment Code. The most recent update to the code came in 2019 with the adoption of Order 2019-1088 of December 18, 2019, which amended Order 2018-646 of August 1, 2018. Dispute Settlement The attention of foreign investment should be particularly drawn to the mechanisms for settling disputes arising from the interpretation and enforcement of the provisions of the new Investment Code. Negotiations to