Overview of Ivory Coast

Population: 29,603,302 people (2024)

GDP: $74.57billion (2024 estimate)

Economic Overview

Despite the hard-hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ivory Coast's economy was one of the few Sub-Saharan African economies that maintained growth in 2020. As per the IMF report, the GDP growth of the nation slowed down to 2.3% in 2020, from 6.2% in 2019. IMF has forecasted that with the gradual normalization of global conditions, the GDP growth will be projected to pick up to 6% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022, boosted by reviving domestic demand.

Market Size

‍Being a lower-middle-income country, the government of the Ivory coast supports the private sector-led growth. The government has worked hard to improve its investment climate and build economic infrastructure to allow businesses to thrive.

The nation welcomes foreign investment to improve the secondary and tertiary sectors and improve the scope of employment. The government also aims to boost sustained and inclusive growth through proposed large infrastructure projects driven by the private sector.

A brief glimpse of industries

• The country has managed to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by the strong pre-crisis fundamentals, relative economic diversification and timely relaxing of the fiscal stance.

• Ivory Coast’s economy is primarily based on agriculture. The government is working to maximize agricultural output by developing raw material processing units. The primary sector contributes more than one-fifth of the gross GDP.

• The oil sector has been prominent over the past few years, leveraging a stable growth rate and significant investments.

• The government is working toward strengthening the main industrial sectors, such as food processing, textiles, fertilizer, construction materials, tuna canning, and different automotive plus bicycle assembling.

• In Ivory Coast, the tertiary sector has grown faster in the last several years. The telecommunications sector is booming and, together with other sectors like transport, tourism, retail trade and construction, contributing a lot to the economy. The services sector contributes about 45% of the GDP.

Cost of living in Ivory Coast

This cost of living in the Ivory Coast is affordable — the living cost may vary depending on the location and lifestyle. Cities are moderately expensive than town and rural areas. Cost of utilities, transport, and groceries are almost similar throughout the nation—accommodation cost is the key to up turn your living cost in the cities. The following table represents an overview of the average living cost in the Ivory Coast.

A Breakdown of the Average Living Cost in Ivory Coast

Cost of renting

The cost of accommodation rent varies greatly depending on the size, type, and location of it. The price of a 1-bedroom apartment in the city center of Ivory Coast cost about 522.00 USD/ month, while a 3-bedroom apartment in the city center costs approximately 1,520.00USD/month. The accommodation cost is maximum in the capital city Yamoussoukro, and the biggest city, Abidjan.

Your cost of living in Ivory Coast depends on your location

The top sectors that are expected to hire in Ivory Coast in 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the service sector a lot. Industries like telecommunications, transport, tourism, retail trade and construction are the most affected ones. Even the agriculture and agribusiness sector has suffered from a decline in exports. To boost up the economy, the government has made some reforms and also implemented new policies. Here are the top sectors that are expected to hire in 2024:

Top Skills in Ivory Coast

The job market is dynamic in Ivory Coast. Continuous development of the industrial and manufacturing sector needs many skilled professionals—there are plenty of job opportunities for entry-level to experienced professionals. The significant industries hiring in Ivory Coast are:

• Textile
• Food processing
• Finance and Banking
• Automobile
• Agro Commodity
• Sales and Marketing

Top Skills City-wise Occupation-wise

Abidjan is the economic capital of the nation and one of the most populated French-speaking cities in Africa. This is also the most industrialized region of the country. This city offers most of the job opportunities in the field of:

• Electricity
• Telecommunication and ICT
• Banking System
• Transportation
• Tourism

Yamoussoukro, the legal capital of the nation, also offers multiple job options to the people in the manufacturing industries. The city provides the majority of employment opportunities in the food processing, forestry, and perfume industries.

Bouaké is the 2nd largest city in the nation. The government has taken multiple initiatives to stimulate the regrowth of the city. With a better transportation facility, the city has re-established and offering multiple job facilities in food processing industries (like cashew processing plant), other agribusinesses, banks, supermarkets, etc.

Hiring Cost

When you need some workforce in your organization, hiring cost can be a crucial factor. Hiring in a foreign country needs a lot of research regarding talent availability and cost-per-hire. The cost of hiring may vary in different locations depending on the cost of living, overall expenditure, and availability of required skill sets. Several expenses can impact your hiring project, like

• Advertising expenses
• Cost for the interview process, screening process, etc. 
• Onboarding cost
• Training cost
• Administrative costs

Salary structure for various roles in Ivory Coast

The following table represents the average annual salary of different sectors in the Ivory Coast.

Employment Laws in Ivory Coast

How Can Skuad Help You In Hiring in Ivory Coast?

Hiring in Ivory Coast requires a thorough talent hunt along with in-depth knowledge of the employment laws, trends, city-wise cost of living, cost-per-hiring, and so on. To make the hiring easy, cost-effective, and beneficial for your organization, you can consider Skuad to be your Employer of record partner. Skuad’s unified employment solution can help you to get the right workforce and take responsibility for all formal employment tasks on your behalf. So, you can enjoy freedom from hiring stress and concentrate on your core business and revenue generation. Contact Skuad to know more.