Author: Jean-Mermoz Konandi

The World Bank will disburse $ 1.5 billion for Côte d’Ivoire. On an official visit to Abidjan, Makhtar Diop, the institution’s vice president for Africa, made the announcement on 22 March to Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara during a hearing. The institution will release $ 200 million to support a project in the cashew sector and $ 300 million in funding for the cocoa sector. Also, Makhtar Diop announced that the World Bank Group will make $ 1 billion available to the country by June to support its development efforts. Another subject discussed is the interconnection of electricity grids in the…

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed on Tuesday a loan agreement with the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the group of African Development Bank (ADB). This loan, which is intended to provide denominational financing to the least developed countries of the continent, is part of Japan’s contribution to the Fourteenth Replenishment of the ADF (ADF-14) in effect during the 2017-2019 period. Administered by ADB, the 1972 Fund has 29 contributing countries working for economic growth and poverty reduction in the 38 least developed countries in Africa.

The Ivorian Minister for Trade, Souleymane Diarrassouba, presented this February 12 the project of setting up an economic indicator to reflect the situation of the high cost of living in Côte d’Ivoire. To do this, a call for tenders has been launched to propose a version of what will be this “strategic tool” of the national policy against expensive living. Seven companies and organizations in Côte d’Ivoire take part in this call: the BNETD (National Bureau of Technical Studies and Development), the Bloomfield Investment rating agency, the ENSEA (National School of Statistics and Applied Economics), the INS (National Institute of…

The Senegalese banking group BRM (Regional Market Bank) officially launched the activities of its Ivorian branch, 9, in Abidjan. An entry into the investment banking niche by which the group intends to succeed in a local banking system run by thirty institutions. For Mansour Cama, chairman of the group’s board of directors, this establishment confirms the importance of Côte d’Ivoire, the economic engine of the WAEMU zone. “We are, he said, already active in the Ivorian economy where we invest in government securities since the start of our activities in Senegal in 2007”. “We come to Côte d’Ivoire as an…

After Dubai’s Global Village, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi or Europa Park Rust in Germany, the Dutch firm VEKOMA Rides Manufacturing (VKM) will export its expertise in Côte d’Ivoire with the construction of attraction of Abidjan. The project was the subject of an agreement between the Ivorian Ministry of Tourism and the company VKM, led by its Vice President Peter Van Bilsen, the 2 last February in the Ivorian economic capital. Identified in a McKinsey study as one of 9’s major projects to make Côte d’Ivoire a land of choice for tourism, infrastructure, which will be built on an area…

In its sixth report on Ivory Coast published this February 8, the World Bank points the finger at the technological gap of the Ivorian economy as the main bottleneck of its march towards emergence. While the country has regained the trajectory of growth, it needs a more efficient and more competitive private sector to accelerate its development. According to the financial institution, as in the case of the East Asian countries, “economic emergence is above all a technological phenomenon”: “these countries are probably not yet at the forefront of research and innovation, but they managed to put in place a…

Côte d’Ivoire is preparing to apply again to the international market to replenish its coffers as part of its 2018 budget. According to the Bloomberg agency which gives the information, it is 1,2 billion dollars of Eurobonds that the country intends to present to international investors this year. Abidjan, which has set a target of 1 310 billion FCFA, 1,99 billion euros, to mobilize on the financial market this year will launch its fourth Eurobond hoping to generate the same craze as last year. For its third Eurobond launched last June, the country had raised securities in dollars (1,250 billion…

The early departure of Jacob Zuma from the presidency seems inexorable. The South African president who had pushed his predecessor to the exit could give way under pressure from his party because of the many cases that plague his mandate. The South African news website Times Live, quoted by Reuters, revealed this February 6 that the South African chief executive accepts the principle of resigning once “certain conditions have been met”. The agreement was reached on Tuesday, notes the confrere, during a meeting between Jacob Zuma and his vice president Cyril Ramaphosa elected last December at the head of the…

Tunisia is preparing to launch in the next few months a direct commercial shipping link to West Africa, said this February 5 a statement from the Tunisian Ministry of Transport. This direct line that will link the Tunisian ports of Gabes and Sfax to the region via the ports of Dakar, Abidjan and Tema (Ghana) is a new development of the Tunis strategy which seeks to boost its economic and trade relations in Tunisia. direction of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the text, negotiations are underway with the Tunisian Navigation Company to provide the necessary financial guarantee for the project. As…

The international airport Felix Houphouet-Boigny (AERIA) reached a new milestone with 2.07 million passengers in 2017, 241,000 more than in 2016 when it hosted 1.829 million. And in light of the 1.3 million registered in 2014, Abidjan making great strides towards its goal to rise to the rank of sub regional airport hub. This performance is the result of structuring investments on the airport to raise the quality of its services, but especially the growing attraction of the Ivorian destination and development of the national carrier Air Côte d’Ivoire. In addition to the return including Tap Air Portugal last year, Air…

The Ivorian government has decided to abandon the contentious provisions of tax schedule 2018 this Monday after a meeting with representatives of the private sector. The information was given last night by Parfait Kouassi, the first vice-president of the Ivorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry after an audience with the first Gon Coulibaly. The latter, who was accompanied by Jean-Marie Ackah, the president of the employers and Mr. Boguifo (president of the Federation of SMEs), welcomed the “courageous decision” of the authorities for the cancellation of almost all the provisions of the 2018 tax schedule, in response to private sector…

The seaside town of Grand-Bassam hosts these 5 and 6 February the 57th General Assembly of the OPCW, the inter-African coffee organization, which brings together delegations of 25 countries of the continent under the theme: “Development of sustainable coffee growing for the emergence of the African economy “. At the heart of the debate, the revival of the coffee culture in Africa in a global context of supply deficit. Africa wants to invest again in the coffee culture. After a development recorded since independence until the 1980 years, the coffee culture on the continent was the expense of falling prices…

Ivorian tourism is moving towards new shores that the Ivorian Minister of Tourism describes as “spring” with a focus on major infrastructure projects for reception and leisure. The latest is the amusement park project unveiled this January 30 by Siandou Fofana. The new leisure area presented as the “first Disney Park Africa” ​​will emerge after the next three months, according to the Ivorian minister. “The feasibility study is complete” and the work should start “in this month of February,” he said. Other projects are announced to strengthen the tourism offer. According to the minister, the Ivorian capital will host a…

Since the beginning of the year, the declaration and the payment of the Taxes and taxes are obligatory in Ivory Coast for the “big” and “average” companies. The general direction of the Taxes reminded the economic operators this January 29. “(…) the use of the e-taxes portal for the declaration and payment of Taxes and Taxes is mandatory since the 1er January 2018 for taxpayers under the direction of large companies (DGE) and the management of medium-sized enterprises ( DME) “details the Ivorian tax report. Launched the 12 last April, the e-taxes portal is the result of reforms aimed at…

The World Bank will disburse an envelope of 7,5 billion FCFA (15 million dollars) for investments to preserve the Ivorian forest. This funding provided through the International Development Association (IDA), through the Strategic Climate Investment Fund, supports the National Forest Investment Policy. In detail, the resources will contribute to the sustainable management of the classified forests and increased monitoring of the Tai National Park, a primary forest of 5 300 km2 in the South West of the country, a World Heritage Site since 1982. The idea is “to preserve and increase” the Ivorian forest heritage by involving communities that depend…

100 000 cocoa plantation acres will be destroyed over the next few years in an attempt to curb the Swollen shoot, a disease that devastates the production of contaminated areas and threatens the orchard of the world’s cocoa leader. The uprooting operation was launched this January 22 in Oukoukoffikro, a village located in the center west of the country, by the director general of the Council Coffee Cacao, Yves Koné. It is indeed the only solution that presents itself to an evil for which there is no treatment. “(…) the disease is progressing in the orchard and the uprooting of…

The Autonomous Port of San Pedro has made 2,894 million tons 2017 traffic, according to its general manager Marcel Hilaire Lamizana. An increase of 13% compared to 2016 and which is marked by the increase in cocoa trade which crosses the symbolic mark of 1 million tons of exported beans. The second port of Ivory Coast, awarded with a long-term A (A2 in the short term) by Bloomfield Investment, is engaged in a major extension program entrusted to the Italian-Swiss shipowner MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), which plans to invest in it. 500 millions of dollars. Work that will strengthen its…

Index insurance will soon be a reality in Côte d’Ivoire. According to a World Bank study presented this January 19 in Abidjan, four speculations, namely cocoa, cotton, rice and corn, are conducive to the establishment of this category of insurance. The paper presented by Fatou Assah, director of the Global Insurance Facility (GIIF), provides for a pilot phase of implementation with “two or three local insurance companies”. This phase will see the reinforcement of the technical capacities of these companies, actors of the agricultural world as well as Sodexam, the national meteorological society. “Côte d’Ivoire has a critical mass that…

MDE Business School will start this year a new high-level program for officials of national and international public administrations: the Public Advanced Management Program (P-AMP). Designed in partnership with ENAP (National School of Public Administration) in Quebec, Canada, the program aims to develop and strengthen the management capacity of officials involved in decision-making positions to enhance their impact and effectiveness of organizations they lead. These high officials “need to motivate and lead their teams to a ffi ner decision making in all areas and implement a management model supported by a clear strategy and without losing sight of the general…

The BRVM finished a year 2017 down, in the wake of a year 2016 far from famous (-3,9% of BRVM C) after the glorious 4 2012-2015 where indices had exploded at + 88,2%. In such a context, as a precaution and convinced of having reached maximum values, investors have begun to fall back. In its annual stock market analysis report, Bloomfield Investment points to this predictable situation, ignoring a favorable economic environment. The agency puts forward several factors. First the correction of values, after a year 2012-2015 marked by record valuations. Then the decline in the results of some companies…

The daily financial transactions via mobile money represent a 17 billion FCFA, or 25,9 million, in Côte d’Ivoire, said Thursday the Ivorian Minister of the Digital Economy at the forum of the African Digital Week which is is in Abidjan. According to Bruno Koné, there are 10 million Ivorians who have a mobile money account, ie 40% of an estimated Ivorian population around 25 million individuals. If mobile money was initially spent on money transfers, its use has evolved and is also used for the payment of bills (water, electricity, etc.), registration fees in schools and administration competitions , e-commerce,…

It is at a real explanation that the Director General of Taxes (DGI) Ouattara Abou Sié gave this January 16 in front of the Ivorian press to defend point by point an 2018 tax schedule that provokes controversy in the media. ‘business. “Côte d’Ivoire must stop being the bad student of UEMOA”, hammered the head of the Ivorian tax office. The West African organization has indeed issued since 1998 a set of directives to which the States of the region are subject in the framework of the subregional integration. And having, during 20 years, dragged behind and lagged behind its…

The tax schedule 2018 continues to arouse the wrath of the Ivorian private sector skinned alive by a series of measures adopted as part of the “modernization of the tax system” according to the authorities. “It’s a step backwards,” Jean Kacou Diagou, the former president of the group and founder of the NSIA group, who stepped up to the plate last Thursday during the presentation of the new text, said: seat of the CGECI. “The tax schedule 2018 was made without the input of the bosses (…)” he said, referring to “a tax hype” intended only to collect “revenue without…

Africa welcomed 62 million tourists in 2017 according to the “UNWTO World Tourism Barometer” presented this January 15. A figure that is up by 8% as in 2016 and above the global average estimated at 7%. The continent is still the little finger of the planet tourism with a representation of 4,7% 1,322 billion tourists who traveled the world last year. Internally, it was North Africa that pulled the sector on the continent with arrivals up 13%, while those in sub-Saharan Africa rose only 5%. At the international level, with 7% growth, the sector recorded its best year since 2010.…

The Ivorian state will sell the 21,54% of assets held by the CNCE – (the national fund of Caisses d’Epargne), the public bank undergoing restructuring – in the capital of La Loyale Vie Assurance. The transfer operation – launched this January 15 – will be through a call for tenders in the direction of “natural and legal persons having alone or in consortium the necessary financial capacities” indicates the communiqué of the national privatization committee, structure dependent on the Prime Minister Ivorian. “As bancassurance is an important focus of La Vie Vie’s development strategy, the participation of credit institutions in…

The African Development Bank has just approved, this January 10, a donation of 43 million dollars to the benefit of Niger, a country whose economy is weakened by the sharp fall of uranium its main export product, the drought and the security challenges that prevail in the Sahel. This budget support should be used to support the first phase of the Reform and Economic Resilience Support Program (PARRE), a multi-year program (2017-2019) aimed at “strengthening the resilience of the country to food and nutrition insecurity”. through better water management and increased agropastoral productivity, “says the AfDB in a statement. “The…

“(…) I had the opportunity to tell the heads of state (…), I wanted to give ECOWAS one of our best, one of the best sons of Côte d’Ivoire. Jean Claude, considering your experience, your professional and personal qualities, I am convinced that you will be able to fulfill with great success your new duties and honor Côte d’Ivoire. I do not doubt it. “. It is by these words that the Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara paid tribute, this January 10 to the Council of Ministers, Jean Claude Brou, his Minister of Industry and Mines designated the 16 last December…

The Canadian company Presse Café opens its second franchise in sub-Saharan Africa in Abidjan, after Dakar. The Ivorian entity was the subject of an agreement signed this January 11 with Lizetta Holding (of the businessman Moumouni Bictogo) who represent the brand in Ivory Coast. The restaurant, which offers, besides coffee, sandwich, various salads, wraps and many other specialties, is ambitious and put on a dozen shops over the next three years, said Marcel Hachem, CEO and founder of the brand. Press Café sets up less than two months after the establishment of Tunisian Café Bondin who chose Abidjan for its…