On December 18, 2024 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire was in the spotlight by obtaining cumulative loans of 139.68 million euros (over 91 billion CFA francs) from the Boards of Directors of the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund. This funding will allow the implementation of the Project to improve skills, entrepreneurship and youth employment.

The African Development Bank is providing 126.32 million euros and the African Development Fund 13.36 million euros in order to define profiles in line with the needs of the labour market in order to increase the socio-professional integration rate of young people. . This project will support young Ivorians in creating viable businesses, stimulate the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in particular, and of the private sector in general, in order to boost the demand for jobs. According to Ahmed Attout, Director of the Financial Sector Development Department at the African Development Bank, “the approval of this project represents an important step in the deployment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB) initiative, which aims to reduce youth unemployment through entrepreneurship. The Bank will work closely with the Ivorian authorities and key stakeholders to implement the YEIB initiative in

For his part, Joseph Ribeiro, Deputy Director General of the African Development Bank for West Africa said that “financing from the African Development Bank Group will help Côte d'Ivoire meet related challenges & increase the employment of young people by equipping them with the skills required for the productive private sector”. For him, “the project that has just been approved will support young people in Côte d'Ivoire in their entrepreneurial journey or their socio-professional integration, through targeted investments in the development of skills, employability, entrepreneurship, including access to financial and non-financial services, the development of micro and small and medium-sized enterprises and the private sector in general”.