Côte d’Ivoire: Public programs for a better professional integration of youth

Various initiatives have been put in place by the public authorities to improve job opportunities for Ivorian youth. Review. 

By Issiaka N’Guessan, in Abidjan

According to data from the International Labor Organization (ILO), the unemployed in Côte d’Ivoire represented only 3.49% of the active population in 2020.  An official rate close to full employment, but which nevertheless hides a darker reality, made up of precarious jobs and informal activity. At the forefront of the victims of this scourge are young people. « In 2018, the Deputy Managing Director in charge of West Africa at the African Development Bank estimated the share of young people under 35 years of age in the Ivorian workforce affected by vulnerable employment and unemployment at 77.3%, » recalls Dr. Oumar Djibrila, Professor and Researcher in Economics and Finance at the University of Félix Houphouët-Boigny and consultant. 

Programs to support the professional integration of young graduates

To face this challenge, the Ivorian government has set up a series of programs to support the professional integration of young graduates: the Competency Development Program aimed at facilitating the employability of young people through additional training or retraining; the National Internship and Apprenticeship Program to facilitate access to a first job through diploma validation internships and pre-employment internships; the Entrepreneurship Program to finance income-generating activities; and finally, the High Intensity Work Program aimed at young people with a low level of education Not to mention the financial means made available: the Ivorian government’s Social Program has budgeted an initial envelope of 67.6 billion CFA francs (EUR 103 millions)  in 2020 to support young people seeking employment. In fact, there is a rea l need in this area. « Of the 2.8 million jobs created in the country between 2011 and 2019, the share corresponding to young people aged 18 to 40 years amounted to 1,88 million, or 67.1% of the total, » says the Youth Employment Agency, Agence Emploi Jeunes.

82,000 young beneficiaries in 2021 

The economic crisis that arose in the wake of Covid-19, however, forced the government to scale back its ambitions. Thus, 61,714 young beneficiaries benefited from the state’s action in 2020 against a target initially set at 272,661 beneficiaries. The year 2021 was however better with « 82 000 young people affected by all programs for a funding of 21 billion CFA francs (EUR 32 millions), » said Hermann Nicoué, the deputy administrator of the Agency Employment Youth, during a recent activity point on social networks. 

This resumption of activity that does not prevent the occasional occurrence of problems.  A little more than 1900 graduates of the State Doctorate of Ivorian public universities have beaten the pavement on December 22, 2021, to demand their recruitment by the state, denouncing a lack of opportunities in some areas. Clearly, while seeking to improve the employability and integration of young graduates, the State would sometimes be guilty of negligence in this area … However, « young people are a force for development, » said the president of the National Federation of Youth of Côte d’Ivoire (FENUJECI), Gaoussou Diabaté. 

The automotive sector, a new opportunity for youth employment

This view is shared by Oumar Djibrila for whom « a developing country like Côte d’Ivoire can take advantage of its abundant young population by targeting its investments. On this point, things are moving, slowly but surely.  On January 10, 2022, at the presentation of the first minibuses « made in Côte d’Ivoire », produced by the Franco-Italian group Iveco and its local partner, the Société des transports abidjanais (Sotra), Amadou Koné, Minister of Transport, announced that « the assembly line [would] allow for the immediate creation of 500 new jobs occupied by national workers ». As for the Prime Minister, Patrick Achi, he was even more specific about his ambitions related to employment, mentioning that this bus assembly unit project in Abidjan would « make Côte d’Ivoire a privileged place for the assembly of spare parts […] with prospects for job creation for our young people, who will be better trained ».  This is a good thing, because Agence Emploi Jeunes offers training programs for young people in Côte d’Ivoire to reinforce their professional integration.