Visas, renting, eating, registering a company, replacing a lost ID — here's the thing: most problems in this country aren't hard, they're just unexplained. Nobody tells you where to go, what it costs, or how long it takes. So we wrote it all down. One checklist, one phone number, one number you can work out yourself. For foreigners, for visitors, and for people who live here.
Pick yours. Every section says where to go, roughly what it costs, and the step where people get stuck.
E-visa, yellow fever card, what the airport ride should actually cost, how not to get ripped off, and how to eat street food without paying for it later. A three-day trip shouldn't be spent in queues.
Deposits and agency fees, the residence card, schooling, bank accounts, mobile money, doctors and insurance. Until these are sorted, you're not really settled.
ID cards, health cover, cocoa and cashew prices plus financing, paperwork for a shop, water and power faults, finding work and learning a trade.
These are the ones that came up over and over in the research. For each: what you can sort online, what needs you in the room, and the cheaper way round it.
Same flat, two prices: foreigners get quoted 30 to 60% more. Deposits run two to three months, and the agent takes another month. Listings are scattered across Jumia House, MeQasa and a hundred Facebook and WhatsApp groups. You pay a holding fee, and the person vanishes. It happens every single day.
Staples, rent and services are all going up, and household budgets are feeling it. Foreigners pay more at the market, in taxis and for domestic help. Imported goods run 30 to 50% above local ones.
The CEPICI one-stop shop and e-Entreprise have cut registration to three to five working days, 24 to 48 hours if you pay for urgency. But lease registration, stamp duty, the import-export code and the FNE e-invoicing system are the hidden costs. That's where newcomers get stuck, nine times out of ten.
ID cards, birth certificates, residence permits and business registration all sit with different bodies, and what they ask for changes. The government is pushing PARAE, its e-government programme, with paperless by 2030 as the goal — but plenty of steps still need you at the counter.
The yellow fever vaccine is a hard requirement to get in. Malaria is a year-round, country-wide risk. Public hospitals are stretched, private clinics are better but you pay, and anything serious usually means evacuation to Europe or South Africa. On the local side, CMU coverage still isn't enough.
The scams cluster around the airport, Plateau, the Grand Marché in Treichville, Adjamé market and ATMs. Online, advance-fee and romance fraud make this one of West Africa's hotspots, and the country's overall exposure to cyber threats ranks high on the continent.
Lost passport, detained, family emergency — reaching the right embassy saves days. But Abidjan only has around fifty resident embassies, and a hundred-odd countries are covered by someone else's post. Almost nobody knows which.
No sign-up, nothing uploaded. It all runs in your browser.
Pick a city, a flat and a lifestyle. Get the real monthly number, deposit included.
02Your take-home pay in one click, plus the effective rate and what your employer actually pays.
03Fees and timelines by legal form, including the costs people forget.
04Deposit, agent's fee, first month. Know the cash you need before you start haggling.
This site fixes the information gap. The things below are on you — or need someone local alongside you.
Rent, taxis, domestic help: foreigners routinely pay 30 to 60% over. Take a local colleague to viewings and negotiate from the first quote. Nothing else pays off as fast.
The XOF is pegged to the euro (1 EUR = 655.957 XOF), so currency risk is near zero — but this is still a cash society. Wave caps fees at 1%, Orange and MTN sit at 1.5–2%. Large amounts from ATMs inside bank branches, small amounts over mobile money.
Name reservation is free and lasts 30 days. Do it before the lease and you avoid paying lease registration for nothing — that's 2.5% of the rent plus 500 XOF stamp duty per page. It's the line item everyone forgets.
Your insurance has to include medical evacuation. Serious cases can't be handled in Abidjan, and a transfer to Europe or South Africa is enough to break a household.
Fines at the station, exchange at the bank, taxis through the app, mobile money without handing over your phone. Four rules, and they defuse almost every scam on record here.
PARAE is digitising government, Ivoire GovTech Lab lets local SMEs bid on public digital projects online, and Ivoire Tech Next 15 / Scale Up give startups 24 months of support. It's the most concrete policy opening going right now.