Abidjan, May 14, 2026 \u2013 The Ivorian Minister of Trade, Industry, and Handicrafts, Kalil Konat\u00e9, reaffirmed C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s commitment to accelerating its industrial transformation during the \u201cInvest in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u201d panel, held as part of the Africa CEO Forum 2026, which took place from May 15 to 16 in Kigali, Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking alongside several members of the Ivorian government and representatives from the African private sector during the \u201cInvest in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u201d panel, the Minister stated that the National Development Plan (NDP) remains the guiding principle for government action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe NDP is the foundation.\u201d \u201cThe priority projects of the Ivorian government are listed there,\u201d he stated, emphasizing the strategic vision of the Ivorian authorities to strengthen the country\u2019s economic attractiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing investment opportunities that are still largely untapped, Mr. Konat\u00e9 highlighted the potential for local processing of raw materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cC\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire is the world champion of cocoa and the African champion of cashew nuts. These are opportunities to move from primary to secondary and tertiary processing,\u201d he affirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister particularly stressed the need to further develop the local chocolate industry. \u201cToday, we are cocoa grinders. We need to go further, to move towards chocolate bars and more production of finished products,\u201d he maintained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also advocated for a reduction in imports through local production. \u201cEverything we import that we can manufacture locally, we must encourage the private sector to do so with specific support,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking ahead to the next five years, Kalil Konat\u00e9 set an ambitious goal for the Ivorian economy: to increase the industrial sector\u2019s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 30%, compared to approximately 20% currently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cInvest in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u201d panel brought together several prominent figures, including Souleymane Diarrassouba and Kalil Konat\u00e9, to discuss the challenges related to investment, industrialization, and improving the business environment in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire.<\/p>\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Abidjan, May 14, 2026 \u2013 The Ivorian Minister of Trade, Industry, and Handicrafts, Kalil Konat\u00e9, reaffirmed C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s commitment to accelerating its industrial transformation during the \u201cInvest in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u201d panel, held as part of the Africa CEO Forum 2026, which took place from May 15 to 16 in Kigali, Rwanda. Speaking alongside several members of the Ivorian government and representatives from the African private sector during the \u201cInvest in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u201d panel, the Minister stated that the National Development Plan (NDP) remains the guiding principle for government action. \u201cThe NDP is the foundation.\u201d \u201cThe priority projects of the Ivorian government are listed there,\u201d he stated, emphasizing the strategic vision of the Ivorian authorities to strengthen the country\u2019s economic attractiveness. Addressing investment opportunities that are still largely untapped, Mr. Konat\u00e9 highlighted the potential for local processing of raw materials. \u201cC\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire is the world champion of cocoa and the African champion of cashew nuts. These are opportunities to move from primary to secondary and tertiary processing,\u201d he affirmed. The minister particularly stressed the need to further develop the local chocolate industry. \u201cToday, we are cocoa grinders. We need to go further, to move towards chocolate bars and more production of finished products,\u201d he maintained. He also advocated for a reduction in imports through local production. \u201cEverything we import that we can manufacture locally, we must encourage the private sector to do so with specific support,\u201d he added. Looking ahead to the next five years, Kalil Konat\u00e9 set an ambitious goal for the Ivorian economy: to increase the industrial sector\u2019s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 30%, compared to approximately 20% currently. The \u201cInvest in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u201d panel brought together several prominent figures, including Souleymane Diarrassouba and Kalil Konat\u00e9, to discuss the challenges related to investment, industrialization, and improving the business environment in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10948,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10526\/revisions\/10948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gucecotedivoire.ci\/pwic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}