Côte D’ivoire Essay ⋆ Business Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This West African country became a protectorate of France in 1843–44, and then a French colony in 1893, gaining its independence in 1960. In spite of its name, “Ivory Coast” in English, the country has depended heavily on the sale of agricultural produce, and about 70 percent of the population still relies on agriculture. The country is one of the largest producers and exporters of cocoa beans, coffee, and palm oil.

Because of its colonial history, French companies tend to have a major role in the country’s economy, developing the countryside to establish plantations for cash crops. After World War I, the French imposed a more centralized administration and also started expanding the country’s infrastructure. Tropical hardwood was harvested, and the plantations—largely run by French companies—produced cocoa and coffee, but there were also some locals who established their own plantations. To help with the building of roads and railways, the French relied on a system of forced labor by which the locals worked in lieu of payment of taxes.

During World War II, the colony was controlled by the French loyal to the pro-German Vichy regime, After the war the French administration introduced a large number of economic and political reforms including the abolition of forced labor, which had become very unpopular because the system was subject to abuse. Agitation also started for independence and much of this was led by Félix HouphouëtBoigny, a local activist who owned plantations and who had established the Syndicat Agricole Africain (SAA), a union that helped protests for independence. Houphouët-Boigny was able to get elected to the French national assembly, spending two years as a French cabinet minister.

In 1958 protests in Côte d’Ivoire led to French president Charles de Gaulle holding a referendum in which the colony voted against a federation being established, and in 1960 Houphouët-Boigny declared independence. He introduced a socialist economy with central planning in an attempt to build up the country. Politically, the country was stable and this helped encourage foreign investment, especially in the cocoa and coffee industries. In the late 1970s, after the oil crisis pushed up the price of gasoline, Côte d’Ivoire started exploiting its own offshore oilfields that provided a degree of wealth for the country. The Abidjan Stock Exchange (Bourse de Valeurs d’Abidjan) was created in 1976 and was one of only four stock exchanges operating in Africa during the 1990s. This helped encourage investment—both local and foreign—in Ivoirian companies, and by 1986 some 30 percent of the shares were owned by Ivoirians. In the early and mid-1990s, Côte d’Ivoire went through a period of austerity and hardship, resulting in a rescheduling of loans in November 1996—it had previously stopped repayments in 1987.

In spite of the discovery of oil, cocoa remains the country’s largest export, making up about a third of Côte d’Ivoire’s export income. Other exports include coffee, petroleum, tropical hardwoods, cotton, bananas, palm oil, pineapple, and fish. Consumer goods and manufactured items make up much of the imports, with 23 percent coming from France; Nigeria and the United Kingdom are Côte d’Ivoire’s other two major trading partners.

Bibliography:

“Cote D’Ivoire: The Real Rulers,” New African (n.471, 2008);
John Rapley, Ivoirian Capitalism: African Entrepreneurs in Côte d’Ivoire (Lynne Rienner, 1993);
Michelle Riboud, The Ivory Coast 1960–1985 (International Center for Economic Growth, 1987);
Douglas Rimmer, The Economies of West Africa (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984);
Francis Teal, “The Foreign Exchange Regime and Growth: A Comparison of Ghana and the Ivory Coast,” African Affairs (v.85/339, 1986);
William Zartman and Christopher Delgado, eds., The Political Economy of Ivory Coast (Praeger, 1984).

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