ACA Participates in Invest in Cote d' Ivoire Forum 2014

Air France's first Airbus A380 landed in francophone Africa on 27 January with Côte d’Ivoire's First Lady Dominique Ouattara and a large delegation of French businessmen aboard, kicking off the Invest in Côte d'Ivoire 2014 (ICI 2014) forum in Abidjan.

Organised by the events division of Groupe Jeune Afrique and the Centre for the Promotion of Investments in Côte d'Ivoire (CEPICI), the forum brought together over 4,000 participants from 113 countries.
The combination of B-to-B meetings, lectures by 130 speakers and an exhibition with nearly 200 exhibitors successfully presented the economic issues of Côte d’Ivoire and West Africa.

"Côte d’Ivoire is extending its hand to you for a win-win partnership," Ivorian Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan told investors. He spoke in the presence of key figures such as Mohammed Namadi Sambo, Vice-President of Nigeria; Luc-Adolphe Tiao, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso; Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank; Makhtar Diop, Vice-President of the World Bank for the Africa region; Jean-Philippe Prosper, Vice-President of IFC; and Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, who addressed the forum by video link.

Four representatives from the African Cashew Alliance attended the ICI Conference.  Xenia Defontaine, ACA PR Manager, Roger Brou, ACA Managing Director, Peter Nyarko, ACA Seal Coordinator, and Sunil Dahiya, ACA Business Advisor all participated in the three day event in various capacities.

On the 28^th of January 2014, ACA Managing Director Roger Brou and ACA Public Relations Manager Xenia Defontaine attended a workshop with various stakeholders from the financial sector in Cote d’Ivoire.  The workshop, which was co-organized by the African Cashew Alliance and the Ministry of Industry and Mines, took place at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Two Ministers were present at the beginning of the event: Mr. Jean Claude Brou, Minister of Industry and Mines of Cote d’Ivoire, and Mr. Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, Minister of Agriculture of Cote d’Ivoire. There were 50 participants at the workshop. The objective of this event was to present the cashew value chain and the national strategy of the government for industrialization and exchange to the participants.  The workshop also focused on the issues that the cashew sector faces with access to finance.

From 29th - 31st January, 2014, Sunil Dahiya, ACA Business Advisor together with Peter Nyarko, ACA Seal Coordinator hosted the ACA booth at ICI 2014 (Invest in Cote D'Ivoire Forum). During the conference, Dahiya and Nyarko shared their individual expertise and promoted ACA service packages as well as the upcoming World Cashew Festival.  More than 50 companies approached the African Cashew Alliance booth during the three days. Several companies showed interest in becoming ACA members Dahiya and Nyarko further individually assisted new investors in their cashew processing ventures and planning.