From Reuters

Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa grower, aims to create 2.4 million new jobs by the end of 2016 though a program of heavy investments in agriculture, a senior government official said.

Once the motor for economic growth in West Africa, Ivory Coast is recovering from a decade-long political crisis that split the country between a rebel-held north and government controlled south and led to economic stagnation.

The economy is growing once again now – expanding by 9.8 percent in 2012 – but unemployment, especially among the young, remains high and many in the country of over 20 million complain that the revival has not trickled down to ordinary Ivorians.

Government plans to invest more than 2 trillion CFA francs ($4 billion) to improve and diversify the agriculture sector hold the key to job creation, Nouhoun Coulibaly, head of project planning at the ministry of agriculture, said.

“The national agricultural program will allow for the creation of 2.4 million jobs in the agriculture sector,” he said.

“Since 2012 we’ve spent 744 billion CFA francs in agriculture, water and forest, animal production and fishery projects,” he added.

Read more at Reuters.