ONECI · CMU · CEPICI · CIE / SODECI

For people who live here

ID papers, health cover, work, farming, water and power, running a small shop — the things that most often stall a household, and the shortest route through each.

ID papers CMU health cover Work Farming Water / power / net Small business Customs Disputes

Identity first

CNI, birth certificate, proof of address

ONECI handles identification. The country is rolling out a national digital ID built on the ECOWAS biometric card standard, designed to work across public services and payment systems.

CNI: issued by ONECI with biometrics, and you have to be there.
Birth certificate (acte de naissance / copie intégrale): school, jobs and paperwork all depend on it. If it's lost, start with a jugement supplétif.
Proof of address: lease, utility bill, or a certificate from the village chief. They ask for it almost everywhere.
Police record: valid three months, needed to register a company and for some jobs.
Check the document list on the ONECI site or at the counter before you go. It changes.

To save time: originals plus two sets of copies, several photos, and batch everything you can do on the same day. In rural areas, watch for ONECI's mobile enrolment visits.

Getting treated

CMU: how to join, what it covers

The Couverture Maladie Universelle is the national scheme. Coverage and quality are improving; access in rural areas is still the biggest gap.

Work out which category you fall into first (formal employment, informal, student) — the contributions and process differ.
Enrolment runs through designated offices or the online portal, with your CNI and photos.
There's a waiting period. Don't join on the day you fall ill.
Reimbursement only works at approved facilities — check clinics and pharmacies first.
Private top-up insurance can cover part of the remainder (roughly 30,000–100,000 XOF a month with NSIA and similar).

The rural reality: clean water, electricity, schools and clinics are still thin on the ground. Bed nets, safe water and vaccination pay back far more than treatment after the fact.

For young people

Finding work, training, getting support

Thousands of graduates hit the job market every year; youth employment is a national project. Policy keeps circling around entrepreneurship, vocational training and growing the private sector.

Skills first: what's missing are people who can work on day one — electricians, refrigeration, welding, CNC, mechanics — plus digital skills. Not another general degree.
Training: public and private programmes are often weighted towards young people and women.
Entrepreneurship: youth support and funding channels, notably through Agence Emploi Jeunes (AEJ).
Startups: Ivoire Tech Next 15 and Ivoire Tech Scale Up give 24 months of structured support; the Ivoire Tech Forum is a funding route too.
Public contracts: Ivoire GovTech Lab publishes digital projects that local SMEs can bid on online.
Job channels: local boards, sector associations, direct hiring and networks. The moment someone asks you for money, walk.

Be careful: any offer that wants a processing fee, training fee or reservation fee is a scam. No genuine employer charges a candidate.

For growers

Cocoa, cashew, coffee: living with price swings

Agriculture is the backbone of the economy and the income of a lot of households. Three problems: credit, volatile prices, and infrastructure. The country supplies roughly 40% of the world's cocoa.

The problem	What you can do
Unstable farm-gate prices, too many middlemen	Join a cooperative or contract with a licensed buyer, and use published reference prices
No collateral, no loan	Use your mobile money history as proof; look at microcredit and wallet-linked credit products
Losses in storage and transport	Improve drying and storage, share transport to cut the unit cost
Traceability and compliance keep tightening	Register plots and keep production records — Europe requires cocoa traceability
Everything riding on one crop	Intercrop food crops with cocoa to spread the price risk

The digital opening: agriculture is over a fifth of GDP, and agritech is one of the liveliest startup segments here. Traceability, input finance and fair prices for smallholders are turning into real businesses.

Water, power, internet

Utilities and getting connected

The city-countryside gap is still wide. Cuts happen; a generator and a water tank are things to ask about before signing a lease in Abidjan.

Power is CIE, water is SODECI. Bills can also be paid through mobile money such as Orange Money.
There are outages. Ask whether there's a backup generator and how the cost is shared.
Same for water: is there a tank or reservoir in the building?
Fixed internet: Orange leads, and fibre is about 65% of fixed subscriptions. MTN and Moov Africa also have home offers.
Mobile: Orange about 51%, MTN about 28%, Moov Africa about 21% (mobile penetration 65.3%, internet 41.4%).
In rural areas, look at satellite (Starlink is licensed, and local partner offers exist) — around 30,000 XOF a month.

Opening a shop

Starting small: the shortest route

The sole trader route is the cheapest way in, about 25,000 XOF: stalls, trades, freelance work.
If you take premises, lease registration is a real cost — agree who pays before you sign.
Take cash and mobile money: Wave charges merchants about 1%, the lowest on the market.
Move up to a SARL once turnover grows, to keep your personal assets separate.
Keep books from day one, even a notebook. It's the only evidence when you apply for credit.
Build tax in: the minimum flat tax is 0.5% of turnover (floor 3 million, ceiling 35 million XOF).

Funding: Wave Bank Africa has a banking licence now, and mobile wallets are moving from payments into deposits and credit. Which means your transaction history is about to be worth real money — start making it clean.

→ What setup costs

Daily life

Manners and how things work

Ivorians are famously hospitable. A few small gestures and a lot of doors open. These are the things everyone here takes for granted.

Greet people, shake hands, ask how they are. Diving straight into business reads as rude.
Give, receive and eat with your right hand.
Take your shoes off when you go inside; show respect to elders and traditional authorities.
Dress modestly, especially at religious sites and in traditional neighbourhoods.
Ask before photographing people, particularly in traditional settings.
No public displays of affection.
On politics and history, listen to how others talk about it first.
A few words of a local language — a greeting in Baoulé or Dioula — and the face in front of you changes instantly.

The line that works: never skip the « Bonjour », not even walking into a tiny shop. Skip it and the price may not be the same.

When it goes wrong

Disputes, land, who to ask

Land is the most common and the messiest dispute here. Customary land and formal title exist side by side, and selling the same plot twice on a handwritten note is not a story — it happens.

Before buying or leasing land, confirm there's a real title (titre foncier). A handwritten agreement doesn't count.
For anything significant, use a notary for the title search and the paperwork. That fee is not where you economise.
Commercial disputes: try mediation first. The chamber of commerce, sector associations and community elders move faster than a court.
Legal aid exists for people on low incomes — ask the judicial services or local NGOs.
Family, inheritance and employment disputes each have their own procedure. Don't mix them up.
Keep proof of every payment: receipts, transfer records, message screenshots. Missing one and you're on the back foot.

The lesson that keeps coming back: a proper document beats ten promises. Where money or land is involved, spend a few extra days on the paperwork rather than going fast.