The words you'll hit at the counter, in the market and on the lease

Steamed granules of fermented cassava — a bit like couscous, springier. It's the national staple and goes with grilled fish, fried fish or any stew. Sold by the bag at markets; one bag covers two or three meals.

Attiéké tossed with fried tuna chunks, raw onion and chilli, 500–1,500 XOF a plate. The everyday lunch for students, drivers and office workers — fast, filling. Judge a garba stall by how fresh the frying oil is.

Fried ripe plantain — crisp outside, soft inside — usually with chilli-onion or a fried fish on the side. Stalls are everywhere and busiest towards evening.

A stall or a row of stalls doing nothing but alloco, open in the evenings. Pick the one with a queue and oil that's still bubbling.

A neighbourhood eatery — plastic chairs, charcoal, a handful of dishes cooked that day. 2,000–5,000 XOF a meal. Asking "what do you have today?" works better than asking for a menu.

Chicken or guinea fowl stewed in a sealed pot with almost no water, opened only at the table. Twenty to thirty minutes' wait, and worth every one of them.

Pounded yam, plantain or cassava into an elastic dough. Pinch off a piece with your right hand and dip it into the sauce. A fork won't help you here.

Fermented cassava paste, sticky and translucent, eaten with okra or palm-nut sauce. It's odd the first time and addictive by the third.

Palm-nut sauce is rich and faintly bitter; okra sauce is slippery and mild. Both are the main event poured over foutou, placali or rice.

A deep-red hibiscus drink, tart and sweet. Always ask for it "bien frais" if you want it properly cold.

Ginger juice — sharp, sweet, poured over ice. Sold at stalls and restaurants alike, and the local answer to a scratchy throat.

Fresh palm wine, faintly sweet and fizzy. It ferments fast — the longer it sits, the sourer and stronger it gets. Drink it the day it's tapped.

Distilled palm spirit — high proof, sold in unmarked bottles, very much an informal drink. Try a sip; don't treat it like a regular spirit.

The charcoal-chicken man. Whole birds grilled to order with attiéké and chilli sauce, out in the evenings, queues at weekends.

Fixed-route minibuses. Dirt cheap, packed, slow, and they stop wherever anyone waves. Not for anyone in a hurry.

Yellow shared taxis running set routes and picking up several passengers — 300–500 XOF a head. Confirm the direction before you get in.

Small motorised boats across the lagoon, part of Abidjan's commuter mix and often quicker than sitting in traffic. Take a life jacket and refuse an overloaded boat.

The intercity bus station. Crowded, chaotic, and a known pickpocket spot — wear your bag on the front and never change money inside.

Abidjan is split into 13 communes, subdivided into quarters. Price, safety and commute time vary hugely between them — always rent at quarter level, not commune level.

Abidjan's business district: office towers, banks, ministries. Packed by day, dead by night — you win on commute, lose on nightlife.

The Ébrié lagoon Abidjan grew around. It explains a lot: waterfront prices, and which bridge you'll be stuck on.

The national ID card. For residents it's the key document — banks, leases and most administrative procedures ask for it.

The residence permit — required once you stay past three months. Budget 150,000–300,000 XOF and one to three months of processing. Overstaying costs you; don't leave it late.

The e-visa is applied for at snedai.com before you fly and makes arrival far smoother. Keep both a screenshot and a printout.

Côte d'Ivoire's official e-visa platform. It's the only channel worth using; third-party agents just add a fee.

The national registry office — ID cards, birth certificates, identity attestations. You can't get around it. Site: oneci.ci.

The international yellow fever vaccination certificate. Checked on arrival, and usually required for residence paperwork. Get it at least ten days before you fly; it's valid for life.

The one-stop shop for company formation — name reservation, registration, RCCM, all under one roof. Name reservation is free and lasts 30 days.

The commercial register — effectively your business licence number. Needed to sign contracts, bid for tenders and issue invoices.

The importer-exporter number. Required the moment you move goods across the border, and applied for separately from the RCCM.

The national social security fund — pensions, workplace accidents, family benefits. Pension split is 6.3% employee / 7.7% employer, on a capped base.

Universal health coverage. Contributions are per person and cover basic consultations and part of your medication. Long-stay foreigners can enrol; check which band you fall into.

The tax authority — income tax, corporate tax, VAT, filings. Its schedules are the ones that count. Site: dgi.gouv.ci.

Income tax, withheld at source. Monthly bands of 0 / 16 / 21 / 24 / 28 / 32%. The professional-expenses deduction rate moves your take-home more than people expect.

VAT, standard rate 18%. Recoverable on B2B transactions, but only if the invoice is compliant — which is where FNE comes in.

The standardised electronic invoice. Since digitisation, an invoice issued outside the compliant channel isn't deductible for your client and leaves you exposed.

A simplified flat-rate regime for micro-businesses, no heavy bookkeeping. While turnover is small it beats the standard regime.

Annual business licence tax. It's owed whether or not you made a profit — open the door, pay the patente.

The West African CFA franc. Pegged to the euro at 1 EUR = 655.957 XOF; it floats against the dollar. Exchanging from the eurozone is predictable.

The central bank for the West African monetary zone. It issues the XOF and sets the exchange framework.

The single-window customs platform for import and export declarations, inspection and release. Paper processing is largely gone.

The land title. It's the only document that definitively proves ownership — not a village letter, not a sale agreement. No title, no purchase.

The notary. Land, property and company statutes all go through one; fees scale with the value of the deed. Not the line item to economise on.

The state's local administration at department and sub-prefecture level. Plenty of attestations, registrations and permits are handled here; it outranks the town hall.

The town hall — births, marriages, deaths, some local taxes. It is not the préfecture and one doesn't substitute for the other.

The gendarmerie — roads and outskirts, uniformed, and a different force from the police. Filing at the wrong one costs you an hour.

Clearance of illegal occupation. The state clears buildings on public or earmarked land, sometimes at short notice. Check before you rent or buy.

The inventory of condition done at move-in and move-out. The more detail the better, with photos — this is exactly where deposits get decided.

The deposit. Two to three months is customary, not a legal ceiling, so it's negotiable. Whether you get it back depends on the état des lieux.

Notice period, binding on both sides, usually one to three months. Read it before signing — it decides how long you're locked in.

The building manager — lifts, generator, guards, shared utilities. In an apartment block, your quality of life runs through this person.

The backup generator. It saves you during outages and it's the clause to nail down in the lease: is it included, and who pays for diesel?

Rolling power cuts when the grid is strained, usually announced. A small UPS for the fridge and laptop makes them survivable.

The power utility — connections, billing, faults. Short code 179.

The water utility — connections, bills, leaks. Short code 178.

The four mobile wallets. Wave caps at 1% and is cheapest; Orange and MTN have the densest agent networks. Best setup: Wave primary, Orange as backup.

A rotating savings club: the group contributes monthly and takes turns receiving the pot. No contract, trust only — very common among small traders.

Abidjan street slang — French, local languages and clipped words. A few phrases and sellers and drivers treat you noticeably differently.

The country's signature music and dance style — heavy rhythm, heavy on style. It's what plays at clubs and weddings.

The earlier homegrown pop style — wry, social lyrics, upbeat tempo. You hear it in the street and on buses.

A Mande trade language common in the north and in markets. Three phrases of Dioula and the seller treats you as one of their own.

One of the largest central ethnic groups and a major cultural force. Their masks and woodcarving are well known.

A northern people known for carving, masks and the yam festival. Korhogo is their heartland.

Anything outside Abidjan is "la brousse" — even a city of 100,000. Going to brousse just means leaving the economic capital.

The long sit-down talk. Things get resolved by talking here, not by sending letters — twenty minutes of conversation beats three follow-up emails.

The statutory minimum wage (non-agricultural): 75,000 XOF a month on a 40-hour week. Check your contract doesn't sit below it.

The agricultural minimum wage, below the SMIG, currently 39,960 XOF a month. It's the benchmark on plantations.

Figuring it out — finding the path when the official channel stalls. It isn't pulling strings, it's a method. In Côte d'Ivoire the word is worth more than any flowchart.

"We'll sort it out." You'll hear it at counters, from landlords, from drivers. It means 'possible, but not right now' — neither a yes nor a no.

The yam festival, marking the harvest across northern and several Akan communities. Dates differ village to village, so confirm before travelling.

Protected rainforest on Abidjan's doorstep — running, walking, monkeys. The easiest green space to reach from the city.