This Friday, trucks transporting agricultural products such as cocoa and cashew nuts are struggling to reach the port of San Pedro from Abidjan or Nawa, a region located in the south-west of the Côte d'Azur. 'Ivory. Those who venture there come out with punctures and sometimes accidents due to the state of degradation of the road. While the Port of San Pedro exports most of the Ivorian cocoa.

According to Pierre Demba, Director General of the Roads Management Agency (Ageroute), the state of degradation of the roads is causing the Ivorian economy to lose more than 900 billion CFA francs (more than 1.6 billion USD). "Cocoa, of which Côte d'Ivoire is the world's leading producer, food products and cashew nuts are not completely evacuated because of impassable roads, especially in the rainy season," he said.

Of the 15,000 km of road in Côte d'Ivoire, 6,500 km are paved. 1,100 billion FCFA have been invested for the construction and rehabilitation of nearly 600 km of roads in the territory.

While he was at the Ministry of Economic Infrastructure a few years ago, the current Secretary General of the Presidency, Patrick Achi, said that for only one kilometer of road, it takes a trifle of 20 or 30 million FCFA. And for the reinforcement of one kilometer of road, with an average lifespan of 15 years, it takes 250 billion FCFA. Adding that the maintenance of the road in Côte d'Ivoire requires nearly 240 billion FCFA. A worrying situation when we know that the Road Maintenance Fund (FER) mobilizes only 90 billion FCFA/year.

During a visit to Gbôklê, in the south-west of Côte d'Ivoire, the late Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Prime Minister at the time, announced that with regard to the coastal road, the rehabilitation works of the Songon-Grand Lahou section (the most degraded part) were to be carried out within a reasonable time, followed by work on the Grand-Lahou San Pedro axis. This rehabilitation was to be followed by a transformation of the road into a motorway. But this project is trotting along, yet the government planned an investment of 3000 billion FCFA in road infrastructure.