In 1960, when Côte d'Ivoire proclaimed its independence, Félix Houphouët-Boigny deliberately chose to go against the grain of the continent. While its neighbors turned to state socialism, the Ghana of N'Krumah, the Guinea of ​​Sékou Touré, the Mali of Modibo Keïta, Abidjan opted for economic liberalism, political stability and openness to foreign capital. This founding strategy would bear fruit spectacularly. The figures speak for themselves. Ivorian GDP, which reached 140 billion CFA francs in 1960, jumped to 478.8 billion in 1977-1978. Over the same period, the annual growth rate, which stood at 3.8% at independence, peaked at 11.4% in 1977-1978, six times the average for developing African countries, then stuck at 1.8%. Between 1960 and 1965, the average growth rate even reached 10.2%, then remained at 6.8% between 1970 and 1975, surpassing both black Africa (4%) and Western countries (6%). 

Coffee and cocoa, true engines of the miracle

The coffee-cocoa duo constituted the lifeblood of this triumphant economy. In 1960, Ivory Coast produced 185,500 tonnes of coffee and 93,605 tonnes of cocoa. In 1980, these figures reached 200,000 tonnes of coffee and 336,000 tonnes of cocoa respectively. The guaranteed income for coffee producers jumped from 16.7 billion to 60 billion CFA francs over the same period, while cocoa farmers saw their gains increase from 7.9 billion to 100.8 billion CFA francs. In 1978, it was the supreme achievement, for the first time in its history, Ivory Coast became the world's leading producer of cocoa with a record production of 312,000 tonnes. However, the country was not content with its plantations. The industrial sector also experienced remarkable progress. From 1959 to 1963, the turnover of Ivorian industries increased from 8 to 20 billion CFA francs. From 1960 to 1970, industrial production grew at an average rate of 15% per year, and the share of industry in GDP increased from 15.2% to 25%. In 1977, the industrial sector had a total turnover of 459 billion CFA francs, employing 63,000 workers, and in 1979, there were 619 production companies distributing 75.2 billion CFA francs in wages. Public spending, inflated by cocoa revenues, jumped from less than 30% of GDP in the 1960s to 42.4% in 1978.

A social model without equivalent in sub-Saharan Africa

Ivorian success was not only measured in commercial terms. The government was investing heavily in human capital, with 43% of the national budget going to education, compared to an average of 25% in other African countries, and 7% to health, compared to 4.5% for its continental peers. The most visible result of this effort was the school enrollment rate rose from 15% in 1960 to 70% in 1978, an unprecedented performance for a country in the region. Abidjan was then proclaimed the “showcase of West Africa”, the flagship city of a continent in search of models. As if behind the scenes, the miracle carried within it the seeds of its own vulnerability. Agricultural growth, which flirted with 10% per year between 1950 and 1964, was only 2% between 1972 and 1978. Public debt quadrupled during the 1970s, going from 18.7% of GDP in 1970 to 45% in 1980. Worse, 54.43% of the capital of companies operating in Côte d'Ivoire was held by foreign interests, including 31.94% for France alone. When world prices for coffee and cocoa collapsed at the end of the 1970s, combined with the second oil shock of 1979, the edifice began to wobble.

Let us remember that the Ivorian miracle of the 1960s-1980s remains a lesson in economic history to meditate on. It demonstrates that an African country can, thanks to stable governance, a coherent liberal vision and the valorization of its raw materials, achieve growth rates worthy of the “Asian tigers”. But it also illustrates the limit of an extroverted model, based on agricultural income and dependence on world prices. Thus, without structural diversification or local appropriation of capital, even the most beautiful miracle remains a fragile construction.