(Springer, 2008) Adiko, Amoncho; Gnonhouri, Philippe G.; Namaganda, Josephine M.
country of 322 thousand square kilometers, and inhabited by 16 million people,
the Ivory Coast is considered the ‘economic lung’ of West Africa, with a GDP of
16.3 billion dollars in 2005. Nonetheless, social unrest and the instability of the
international commodity market made the country’s annual growth rate fall from
7% in the 1990’s to 2% (Anonymous, 2006).
The Ivory Coast’s prosperity is based primarily on agriculture, which accounts
for 35% of the GDP, 70% of the export earnings, and 66% of the employment positions
(Anonymous, 1997a). Major agricultural products are coffee, cocoa (40%
of the world’s production), palm-kernel oil, cotton, rubber, banana, pineapple, and
mango. The offshore reserves of oil and natural gas are also important assets for the
national economy.