Ivory Coast Coalition Partner Rejects Merger Before Elections

Ivory Coast Coalition Partner Rejects Merger Before Elections

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – The main partner in President Alassane Ouattara’s ruling coalition won’t go ahead with a proposal to unify their parties before presidential elections in two years and plans to field its own candidate. The announcement is a setback for Ouattara and plans to merge the six parties that make up the ruling coalition, which would have consolidated its grip on power in the world’s biggest cocoa producer and forced the two…

Read More

Ivory Coast Confident `Turbulent’ 2017 Is Over as Calm Back

Ivory Coast Confident `Turbulent’ 2017 Is Over as Calm Back

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast is unlikely to repeat the upheaval of 2017, when it had to bow to the pay demands of mutinous soldiers and striking government workers while prices for its biggest export plummeted, Finance Minister Adama Kone said. The West African nation received financial support from the International Monetary Fund to cope with individual payments of almost $20,000 to more than 8,000 military staff and a settlement of more than $400 million…

Read More

Ivory Coast May Legalize Cocoa Farming in Some Protected Forests

Ivory Coast May Legalize Cocoa Farming in Some Protected Forests

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, plans to legalize farming on almost 5 million acres of protected reserves to help balance the rebuilding of forests with an output of its most important export. The government wants to reclassify protected forests that have been destroyed by more than three-quarters because of unauthorized farming — most of it cocoa — into “protected agroforest” areas, according to a Forestry Ministry document obtained by…

Read More

Moody’s: Côte d’Ivoire’s credit profile reflects economy’s increasing diversification and high growth prospects

Moody’s: Côte d’Ivoire’s credit profile reflects economy’s increasing diversification and high growth prospects

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) — Côte d’Ivoire’s (Ba3 stable) credit profile is primarily supported by the economy’s growing diversification and high growth prospects, which are underpinned by structural reforms and public investment in infrastructure, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report today. The country’s low institutional strength is a key credit constraint. The annual update, ” Government of Côte d’Ivoire — Ba3 Stable, Annual credit analysis”, is now available on www.moodys.com. Moody’s subscribers can…

Read More

Mutinies `Humiliated’ Ivory Coast, Parliament Speaker Says

Mutinies `Humiliated’ Ivory Coast, Parliament Speaker Says

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – A series of mutinies by soldiers in Ivory Coast demanding payments for supporting President Alassane Ouattara humiliated the West African nation, according to National Assembly Speaker Guillaume Soro, who once commanded the troops as a former rebel leader. “I can only note that we are despised,” Soro, 45, said in an interview Sunday at his residence in Abidjan, the commercial capital. “It’s a humiliation for us — the state, the president, myself…

Read More

Ivory Coast to Sell First Eurobond Since 2015, Says Minister

Ivory Coast to Sell First Eurobond Since 2015, Says Minister

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast will soon sell Eurobonds in the West African nation’s first issuance of international debt since 2015, said Finance Minister Adama Kone. The offering will start in the “coming days,” Kone said in comments after a cabinet meeting in the commercial capital, Abidjan. He declined to comment on the sale amount or maturity of the debt. The announcement comes as cocoa prices have fallen by more than a third…

Read More

Army Is Ouattara Achilles’ Heel as Ivory Coast Economy Roars

Army Is Ouattara Achilles’ Heel as Ivory Coast Economy Roars

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – As Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara presides over Africa’s fastest-growing economy and leads a ruling coalition that’s just won a fresh majority in parliament, he still faces a key threat to national stability: the army. A two-day mutiny by soldiers demanding better pay and living conditions that paralyzed several cities last week was the second uprising in three years. It showed that the world’s biggest cocoa producer is still vulnerable after…

Read More
1 2