Rome installs its financiers in the heart of Abidjan. It is no longer a diplomatic promise, but an office, an address, teams on the ground. The opening of this local branch of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) marks a turning point in the economic relationship between Ivory Coast and Italy. It is in this context that the Minister of Planning and Development received, at the headquarters of his department, the Ambassador of Italy, Roberta Di Lecce accompanied by Riccardo Rossi Van Lamsweerde, Director of the CDP. The financial arm of the Italian strategy for Africa, the CDP implements the Mattei Plan, launched by Rome to build economic partnerships with African countries, far from a traditional assistance logic.

The institution focuses its interventions on three priority areas such as support for the private sector, food security and infrastructure. It is already participating in the co-financing of an agropole in the north of the country, a project intended to structure agricultural value chains in a region with strong agro-industrial potential. Beyond this issue, the discussions made it possible to explore other avenues, notably climate, an area also targeted by the Mattei Plan via the Italian Climate Fund. These guidelines extend Italy's commitments in Ivory Coast, the pilot country of this strategy since January 2024. Dr Souleymane Diarrassouba praised the quality of Ivorian-Italian cooperation and Rome's support for the new national development cycle.He encouraged the CDP to intensify its interventions with Ivorian economic operators, recalling the alignment of these projects with the priorities of the National Development Plan (PND) 2026-2030.

With this establishment, Côte d'Ivoire gains one more financial partner to transform its industrial and agricultural ambitions into projects concrete.