Move over, France.

As Côte d’Ivoire’s relations with its former colonial master have continued to deteriorate, culminating with last week’s decision to expel the 600 French troops in the country, the United States has increasingly stepped into the breach.

Antony Blinken kicked off 2024 with the first visit by a US secretary of state in 12 years, meeting with President Alassane Ouattara in January and deepening diplomatic, commercial and military ties.

A slew of economic and commercial investments followed, including the opening of the first US Commercial Service office in francophone West Africa over the summer, and the signing of a bilateral commercial investment partnership.

These are not just important symbols from the United States, but a real, concrete investment…

The approval of a $300m regional power compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation to boost Ivorian participation in the West African energy market came next, and then the 12 December opening of a regional office of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in Abidjan.

And just this week, US defence officials led by Acting Under Secretary of Defense Amanda Dory wrapped up a visit to Abidjan and neighbouring Cotonou, Benin, where the US is relocating troops expelled from Niger.

“Côte d’Ivoire and the United States have a strong relationship, [which is] growing stronger all the time,” US Ambassador Jessica Davis Ba tells The Africa Report.

“These are not just important symbols from the United States, but a real, concrete investment in bringing together … key tools to be able to advance US trade and investment with Côte d’Ivoire.”

Coastal strategy

US interest in the country really took off following the end of the civil war in 2011, but particularly after passage of the Global Fragility Act in 2019, Ba says. That landmark piece of legislation set aside funding to address the root causes of conflict in select countries, including $300m for coastal West Africa (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Togo).

“What was really apparent is that a lot of our investments in coastal West Africa had been with Ghana, but because of the ways in which historical and geopolitical relations go we weren’t necessarily seeing the same kind of impact in the francophone countries,” the US ambassador says. “And so in the last couple of years, we have really ramped up.”

At the same time, the country has emerged as a leading commercial hub in francophone West Africa, celebrated for its ease of doing business. GDP grew by 6.5% last year, according to the World Bank, more than twice the African average of 3.2%.

The booming economy has been good for US businesses, which exported $501m worth of goods in 2022, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative, up 166% over the previous decade. US imports however were down 4% over that period, for a total of $1.1bn.

We are showing up with innovative tools, with a grand vision that coincides with and aligns with [Ivorians’] goals

“When we look specifically at Côte d’Ivoire, we view it and see it as a regional hub for investment,” says British Robinson, the coordinator of Prosper Africa, which coordinates Africa programming across 17 US agencies. “A lot of what happened there has a spillover effect with these other countries, in particular Senegal.”

Robinson visited Côte d’Ivoire in late fall of 2024. She tells The Africa Report that Prosper Africa has launched a two-year initiative to mobilise more than $40m of US investments in francophone Africa “because we don’t have a long history there”.

“This initiative will use some of our grant funding to help de-risk private sector investors and expose US investors to the opportunity in this very high-growth, resilient region,” she says. “A huge portion of that we think will benefit Côte d’Ivoire.”

“We are showing up with innovative tools, with a grand vision that coincides with and aligns with [Ivorians’] goals.”

Leveraging the diaspora

Key to success is leveraging America’s two-million strong African diaspora, which includes thousands of Ivoirians, says Robinson. The new President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement chose Côte d’Ivoire for its inaugural visit, bringing three sports envoys to the country.

“I think this is a really important point when we talk about crowding in additional capital flows onto the continent, and letting people know that this region of the continent is truly open for business,” Robinson says.

“And part of that is not just for transactions’ sake, but it’s also for what we call ecosystem building. Ultimately, we see this approach … is deepening Africa’s capital markets and ultimately helping Africa and enabling it and empowering it to be a full participant in the global capital markets.”