Côte d'Ivoire takes a decisive step in its digital sovereignty. On the sidelines of FEMUA 18, the Anoumabo Urban Music Festival in Abidjan, Minister Djibril Ouattara announced the development of artificial intelligence tailor-made for Ivorians. Far from generic tools manufactured in the West or in Asia, the project aims to build "an AI which takes into account Ivorian culture, which takes into account the heritage of Ivorian research and which takes into account everything that is legislative and regulatory in Côte d'Ivoire", declared the Minister.

A tool designed for cocoa

The choice of agriculture as a priority sector is not insignificant. The world's leading cocoa producer, Ivory Coast sees this sector as an essential strategic lever. Concretely, the envisaged AI should make it possible to provide agricultural yields, detect crop diseases, optimize logistics chains and improve product traceability. The minister was explicit: it is a question of “creating an AI specific to agriculture, to products like cocoa… something that we will not be able to obtain anywhere else than in Côte d'Ivoire”. style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The government announcement is part of an agritech ecosystem already in motion. Launched in 2023, the start-up CocoaShield uses drones and AI cameras to visually detect swollen shoot, a virus devastating cocoa plantations, allowing farmers to react in real time. Awarded at the Orange Summer Challenge 2023, this initiative illustrates local technological potential. The State now intends to capitalize on these pioneering experiences to build a national architecture integrating local data, Ivorian languages and a regulatory framework specific to the country.

Note that the realization of this project assumes demanding conditions such as the financial capacity of the State (estimated at around one billion dollars over thirty years), the availability of data digital technology, the quality of infrastructure and the training of local skills. If the promises come true, this Ivorian AI could go beyond urban centers to directly transform the lives of millions of small rural producers.