Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T01:46:36.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Commerce in Côte d'Ivoire: Ivoirianisation without Ivoirian Traders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Catherine Boone
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Côte D'Ivoire retains a central place in discussions on the development of African capitalism. Dramatic increases in agricultural and industrial production in the post-colonial period, coupled with the régime's unequivocally liberal and pro-capitalist discourse, contributed to the image of the Ivoirian state as aggressively promoting the expansion of local and foreign capital. By the late 1970s, it was clear that a select stratum of Ivoirians had amassed private fortunes in the industrial sector, agro-industry, and real estate. Less clear is the significance of this fact for understanding the internal dynamics and development trajectory of Ivoirian capitalism. The idea that the Ivoirian bourgeoisie diversified from its base in agriculture to become one of the most dynamic and influential business classes in sub-Saharan Africa remains plausible, but it evokes no consensus among analysts. Indeed, students of Ivoirian capitalism have been more inclined to argue that the state itself remains the main source of private fortunes, that local capital is thoroughly subordinated to foreign capital, and that indigenous business interests are ensnared in the clientelistic networks of the régime.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 67 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Miras, Claude de, ‘L'Entrepreneur ivoirien ou une bourgeoisie privée de son état’, in Fauré, Yves A. and Jean-François, Médard (eds.), État et bourgeoisie en Côte d'Ivoire (Paris, 1982), pp. 181–230,Google Scholar and Amondji, Marcel, Côte d'Ivoire, le PDCI, et le vie politique de 1944 à 1985 (Paris, 1986).Google Scholar On the régime's apparent lack of interest in promoting a local bourgeoisie, see also Campbell, Bonnie, ‘The State and Capitalist Development in the Ivory Coast’, in Lubeck, Paul M. (ed.), The African Bourgeoisie: capitalist development in Nigeria, Kenya and the Ivory Coast (Boulder, 1987), pp. 281–303.Google Scholar

2 Assidon, Elsa, Le Commerce captif: les sociétés commerciales françaises de l' Afrique noire (Paris, 1989).Google Scholar

3 Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens (Paris), 19 05 1978, p. 1320.Google Scholar

4 Ibid. 3 February 1978, pp. 251–2, and 31 March, 1978, pp. 898.

5 Institut de dévelopment économique et technique, filiale de la Commission générale d'organisation scientifique, La Distribution en Côte d' Ivoire (Abidjan, and Paris, 1963), hereafter cited as Idet-Cegos.Google Scholar

6 Programme national d'assistance aux commercants ivoiriens (PNCI), ‘Note de synthese’, 1990. According to this unpublished report held by Scimpex, Abidjan, 19·5 per cent of the boutiques were run by Mauritanians, 16–7 per cent by Lebanese, and 42 per cent by non-Ivoirian Africans.Google Scholar

7 Ministère des Affaires Économiques et Financières and Idet-Cegos, , Ensemble de projets devant concourir à l'amélioration et au dévelopment de la distribution en Côte d' Ivoire: mission d' étude et de mise en place des structures du commerce et de la distribution en Côte d' Ivoire (Abidjan, 06 1969), hereafter cited as MAEF/Idet-Cegos.Google Scholar

8 Opening statement at the Association's meeting in Abidjan, 17 April 1987), typescript.

9 Marchés tropicaux, 7 May 1955, pp. 1244–5.Google Scholar See also, Tricart, Jean, ‘Le Café en Côte d'Ivoire’, in Cahiers d' outre mer (Bordeaux), 10, 39, 1957, p. 222.Google Scholar

10 Société d'études pour la promotion de l'industrie caféière (SEPRIC) et la Société d'études pour le dévelopment économique et social (SEDES), Eléments pour une réforme de la commercialisation de café en Côte d'Ivoire: rapport général et annexes (Paris, 09 1970), pp. 77–80.Google Scholar

11 Hecht, Robert M., ‘The Ivory Coast Economic “Miracle”: what benefits for peasant farmers?’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 21, 1, 03 1983, p. 34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Lubeck, Paul M., ‘The African Bourgeoisie: debates, methods and units of analysis’, in Lubeck, (ed.), op. cit. p. 23.Google Scholar

13 Fauré, Yves, ‘Le Monde des entreprises en Côte d'Ivoire: sources statistiques et données de structure’, Abidjan, ORSTOM, November 1988, p. 120.Google Scholar

14 See Grupp, R. E., ‘Transposition en Afrique noire de méthodes commerciales modernes: l'entreprise succursaliste “Chaîne Avion” en Côte d'Ivoire’, in Laboratoire ‘Connaissance du Tiers-Monde’, Entreprises et entrepreneurs en Afrique: XIXe et XXe siècles, Vol. II (Paris, 1983), pp. 353–67,Google Scholar and Bonin, Hubert, CFAO: cent ans de competition (Paris, 1987), p. 354.Google Scholar

15 MAEF/Idet-Cegos, op. cit.Google Scholar

16 Campbell, Bonnie, ‘The Social, Political, and Economic Consequences of French Private Investment in the Ivory Coast’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Sussex, Brighton, 11 1973, p. 332.Google Scholar

17 See Bonnefonds, Asté Léon, ‘La Transformation du commerce de traite en Côte d'Ivoire depuis la deuxième guerre mondiale et l'indépendance’, in Cahiers d' outre mer, 84, 1968, pp. 401–2.Google Scholar

18 Lewis, Barbara, ‘Ethnicity and Occupational Specialization in the Ivory Coast: the Transporters Association’, in Paden, John N. (ed.), Values, Identities, and National Integration: emipirical research in Africa (Evanston, 1980), pp. 75–87.Google Scholar

19 Bonnefonds, loc. cit.

20 Ibid. pp. 401–2.

21 The 1963 survey counted about 3,000 commercial establishments owned by either African or Lebanese merchants, concentrated in 102 localities. The report argued that in the case of these installations, ‘one is not talking about real commerces organisés in the modern sense of the term (that is to say enterprises offering a real service to their clientele) but rather very rudimentary “boutiques” that do a level of business [chiffre d' affaires] too limited to permit rational management’. Idet-Cegos, op. cit. pp. 97 and 161.Google Scholar

22 Ibid. pp. 181–2.

23 Marchés tropicaux, 1 February 1969, pp. 247–8.

24 Idet-Cegos, op. cit. pp. 181–2, and MAEF/Idet-Cegos, op. cit.

25 MAEF/Idet-Cegos, op. cit.

26 Voix d' Afrique (Abidjan), 21, 19 07 1976. Distripac's leading shareholder was the Caisse générale de péréquation des prix, set up in 1971 to generate and manage a price stabilisation fund for rice.Google Scholar See Rochière, Jacqueline Dutheil de la, L' État et le dévelopment économique de la Côte d' Ivoire (Paris, 1976), p. 362.Google Scholar

27 République de Côte d' Ivoire, Ministère du Plan, Plan quinquénnal de développement économique, social, et culturel, 1981–1986, Vol. II, Planification Sectorielle (Abidjan, 1981), pp. 552–3.Google Scholar

28 Sylla, Issiaga, ‘La Chaîine Avion: étude du point-mort des succursales’, Maîtrise d'économie d'enterprise (M.E.E.), Faculté des sciences économiques, Université nationale de Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, 1977.Google Scholar

29 Voix d' Afrique, 21, 19 07 1976, p. 46.Google Scholar

30 Agripac's turnover (chiffres d' affaires) in 1977/78 was 18,000 million CFA francs. On Agripac, see de la Rochiére, op. cit. pp. 374–6, and Plan quinquénnal, 1981–1986, Vol. II, pp. 549–50.Google Scholar

31 See Contamin, Bernard and Fauré, Yves, La Bataille des entreprises publiques en Côte d' Ivoire (Paris, 1990).Google Scholar

32 Fauré, , ‘Le Monde des entreprises en Côte d'Ivoire’, p. 119.Google Scholar

33 Fraternité matin, 5 December 1989, p. 22.

34 Hecht, loc. cit. p. 51.

35 Marchés tropicaux, 19 May 1978, p. 1320.

36 Ibid. 29 July 1977, p. 2039.

37 Hecht, loc.cit. p. 51.

38 See Bakary, Tessy D., ‘Côte d'sIvoire: logiques du recrutement politique et éventuels changements à la tête de l'état’, in Le Mois en Afrique (Paris), 10–11 1985, pp. 237–8;Google ScholarTeya, Pascal Koffi, Côte d'Ivoire: le roi est nu (Paris, 1985);Google Scholar and Société africaine d'édition, Les Élites ivoiriennes (Paris, 1982).Google Scholar

39 Bonin, op. cit. p. 451.

40 Répertoire des entreprises industrielles (Abidjan),Google Scholar La Documentation française, Le Fichier permanent de la Côte d' Ivoire (Paris),Google Scholar and Société africaine d'édition, La Côte d's Ivoire en chiffres (Paris), various years. SCOA apparently owns part of Dafci; the CFCI invested in Jean Abile-Gal and SIFCA; and the CFAO invested in SIFCA.Google Scholar

41 See Afrique-Asie (Paris), 20 05 1985,Google Scholar cited by Baulin, Jacques, La Succession d' Houphouët-Boigny (Paris, 1989), p. 131.Google Scholar

42 SEPRIC/SEDES, op. cit.

43 Interviews in Abidjan, August 1991.

44 Fraternité édition, Côte d' Ivoire: 20 ans (Abidjan, 1980), pp. 95–6.Google Scholar

45 SOCIVEX, created in 1970, was jointly-owned by Lonrho/SAMEGEF (40 per cent) and the Ivoirian state through SOGIEXCI (60 per cent) until about 1986, when the latter took complete ownership. SOCIVEX also held 58 per cent of the shares in SERIC (coffee-shelling plants), until these were ceded to COGEXIM sometime after 1977. See Contamin and Fauré, op. cit. p. 323.Google Scholar

46 Plan quinquénnal, 1981–1986, Vol. II, p. 551.Google Scholar

47 Contamin and Fauré, op. cit. p. 325.

48 Ibid. p. 320.