Ivory Coast’s incumbent Laurent Gbagbo decreed yesterday that major banks suspending business in Ivory Coast are to be nationalised, the latest turn in a bitter struggle for political control of the West African state.
The banking system of the world’s top cocoa grower has been heading towards total collapse this week, with almost all commercial banks shut and others swamped by customers trying to withdraw savings.
The country’s biggest bank, a unit of Société Générale, suspended operations yesterday, the latest in an exodus of foreign banks from the West African nation that is turning political crisis into financial meltdown.
A violent power struggle over a disputed November 28th election between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and rival Alassane Ouattara is ruining the nation’s economy, as EU and US sanctions on Mr Gbagbo and his backers for refusing to cede power start to bite. The election was meant to reunite a country divided since a 2002-2003 civil war and to spur investment. However, the standoff, which has killed some 300 people according to the United Nations, has merely deepened divisions. Five African leaders charged with finding a solution to the crisis are due to meet this weekend, but Mr Ouattara’s camp doubts they will succeed and called on Ivorians to mount a Tunisian- or Egyptian-style revolution rather than seek outside help.
Mr Gbagbo has defied international pressure to step down after UN-certified results showed Mr Ouattara won the poll but a pro-Gbagbo legal body reversed the results. He has been cut off from the West African central bank and has seized its local office, triggering a liquidity crisis.