By Radarr Africa Business Desk
ABIDJAN, November 14 (Radarr Africa) – Côte d’Ivoire formally presented its Integrated Mineral Resources and Energy Policy, known by its French acronym PIRME, on November 9, setting out an estimated 38,000 billion CFA francs of investment over 15 years to make mining, oil and electricity the country’s second economic pillar after agriculture, according to the Ivorian Press Agency (AIP).
Mines, Petroleum and Energy Minister Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly presented the policy at the Sofitel Abidjan Hotel Ivoire. AIP reported that the ambition is to double the extractive and energy sectors’ contribution to national wealth within 15 years, in line with the vision of President Alassane Ouattara. The policy has five reform and structuring programmes. Financing is split 88 per cent private and 12 per cent public, AIP said.
Targets include becoming Africa’s leading gold producer by 2035 and ranking among the top five African oil producers by 2035. The country also aims to become the first energy exporter in the sub-region by 2040 and a regional hub. By 2035, at least 95 per cent of goods and services needed by the extractive industry are to be produced locally, AIP reported. A business report on the launch said the sector’s share of GDP is to rise from 7 per cent in 2025 to about 14 per cent in 2040, oil output from 80,000 barrels a day in 2026 to 500,000 in 2040, and gas supply from 320 million cubic feet a day to 1,000 million.
The same report said electricity capacity is to triple through an additional 8,000 megawatts, and that a new refinery with capacity of 6.1 million tonnes is planned by 2032. Infrastructure plans include gas pipelines linking Abidjan to Bouake and San Pedro and a 474-kilometre railway between San Pedro and Man. The state-owned Ivorian precious metals company SIMEP is to refine gold locally. Sangafowa-Coulibaly described the policy as a “paradigm shift” for the extractive and energy industries, translated from French.
AIP listed announced projects including an African Development Bank initiative on critical-mineral transformation corridors, a phosphate hub for the West African Economic and Monetary Union, a doubling of electricity interconnection between Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and the African Atlantic gas pipeline linking Nigeria to Morocco. Institutional reforms include independent regulators for the mining and hydrocarbons sectors, the transformation of state firms PETROCI and SODEMI into what the ministry calls world-class holding companies, and a review of the business model of CI-Energies. No date was given for the regulators.
The presentation came as parliament worked through the 2027 budget. The Council of Ministers adopted the draft finance bill on October 14, with spending of 18,466.1 billion CFA francs, up 6.4 per cent from 17,350.2 billion in 2026, an increase of 1,115.9 billion, according to Ivorian business media citing the government portal. The draft assumes real GDP growth of 6.6 per cent in 2027 against 6.2 per cent in 2026, and a budget deficit cut to 3.5 per cent of GDP from 3.8 per cent.
On November 11, the National Assembly’s Economic and Financial Affairs Committee examined and approved the 2027 budgets of three ministries, totalling 379.238 billion CFA francs, according to Ivorian press reports. Economy, Finance and Budget Minister Adama Coulibaly presented 294.2 billion CFA francs for his ministry’s services, with 111.5 billion for personnel, 86 billion for goods and services and 87.2 billion for investment. Separately, the common expenditure and other allocations lines amount to 8,122.9 billion CFA francs, including 3,892 billion for domestic debt and 2,693 billion for external debt.
Coulibaly said single-source contracts in public procurement are falling, translated from French. He listed priorities including integrating climate risks, modernising customs, securing tax revenue and digitalising tax management.
State Portfolio and Public Enterprises Minister Mariatou Kone presented 21.58 billion CFA francs, and Planning and Development Minister Souleymane Diarrassouba 63.458 billion CFA francs, of which 27.45 billion, or 43 per cent, is for investment. Diarrassouba’s budget is financed 81 per cent by the Treasury and 19 per cent by technical and financial partners, and includes a forward-looking study, Côte d’Ivoire 2060, and the construction of the headquarters of the national statistics agency, ANStat, press reports said.
