The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1960–1987
Côte d'Ivoire never nationalized its water; one private lease has run since 1960
Côte d'Ivoire kept water in private hands after independence; the World Bank calls the lease the developing world's oldest and largest water PPP.
SODECI (Côte d'Ivoire water utility)
The solution
When Côte d'Ivoire became independent in 1960, most African states nationalized their utilities. Côte d'Ivoire did the opposite: SODECI, created in December 1959 with capital of 40 million FCFA, took over from the French operator SAUR on 27 September 1960 and kept running Abidjan's water networks as a private company.
The arrangement deepened instead of ending. From 1973 a national hydraulics program let SODECI expand, and in 1974 it added a drinking-water lease (affermage) for the interior. In 1987 the Abidjan and interior contracts were merged into a single national affermage, under which the state kept ownership of the assets while the private company ran operations under renewable, regulated contracts.
The design paid off where peers failed. The World Bank's PPIAF review says the arrangement, in place since 1960 and serving more than 7 million people, 'provided quality service for decades and made remarkable progress in expanding access in the 1990s' — and proved resilient to civil strife and the country's de facto partition in 2002.
Institutionalization continued: in 1999 SODECI added a sanitation lease for Abidjan, in 2000 it became the first private public-service company in Africa certified to ISO 9001, and in 2008 the water contract was renewed for 2008–2023. Today SODECI is listed on the regional stock exchange (BRVM) with Eranove as principal shareholder, and supplies drinking water to more than 2.1 million customers.
Why it worked
- Keeping asset ownership with the state removed the sovereignty objection, so the lease survived independence, coups and civil war.
- One private operator with a long renewable horizon invested in efficiency — metering, maintenance, ISO 9001 processes — instead of waiting for budgets.
- Merging contracts into one national affermage (1987) let the profitable Abidjan network carry the poorer interior, making expansion affordable.
- Regulated tariffs and contract renewal created accountability: perform or lose the lease, so service quality stayed high enough to keep renewing.
What can be applied
A stable lease — state owns the assets, one private operator runs them — beat both nationalization and full privatization: service kept improving through civil war because continuity was contractual.
Aftermath
The World Bank's PPIAF note (2009) called the arrangement the oldest and largest water PPP in the developing world, serving over 7 million people and resilient to the 2002 partition. SODECI's water contract was renewed for 2008–2023, and the company remains a reference for private water operation in Africa: ISO 9001 certified, listed on the BRVM with Eranove as principal shareholder, producing about 360 million cubic metres of drinking water a year for more than 2.1 million water customers and 1.06 million sanitation customers, and rated AA- in 2016.
Sources
- PPIAF Gridlines — Partnering for Water in the Côte d'Ivoire (lessons from 50 years of successful operation)
- Sodeci En Bref (company history)
- Société de distribution d'eau de la Côte d'Ivoire
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