Which city was made Côte d'Ivoire's official capital in 1983?

Which city was made Côte d’Ivoire’s official capital in 1983? Yamoussoukro. In March 1983, President Félix Houphouët-Boigny designated Yamoussoukro as Côte d’Ivoire’s political and administrative capital, replacing Abidjan.

The choice had a strong personal and political connection: Yamoussoukro was Houphouët-Boigny’s birthplace. It was also centrally located, unlike the coastal cities that had served as colonial-era capitals. Before Abidjan, the country’s capitals had included Grand-Bassam and Bingerville, so Yamoussoukro represented another major shift in the national administrative map.

The capital transfer did not remove Abidjan’s practical importance. Abidjan remains Côte d’Ivoire’s largest economic hub and continues to host many institutions and much of the country’s business activity. That division explains why quiz-takers may incorrectly choose Abidjan: it is the economic capital and the country’s best-known city, while Yamoussoukro is the legal political capital.