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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Government initiatives to strengthen Côte d’Ivoire’s industrial base have continued to yield results. However, despite public investment and government policies that have attracted private participation to the industrial sector, 2020 is likely to be a challenging year, with firms waiting to invest due to supply chain disruptions and the negative demand-side effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.…
