Côte d’Ivoire has taken advantage of the reopening of international markets to pair new long-dated bond issues with a partial buyback offer for its Eurobond maturing in 2032, in order to optimise the structure of its debt and reduce the refinancing risk concentrated over the next decade. In a June 2024 report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) already underlined that Côte d’Ivoire was using Eurobond placements to finance the buyback of bonds maturing in 2025 and over the period covered by the 2032 Eurobond.

“Liability management operations aim to reduce refinancing risks and improve the maturity profile of Côte d’Ivoire’s public debt.” — IMF staff, Country Report No. 24/223, IMF

What the 2032 Eurobond represents in the Ivorian debt architecture

According to statistics from the UMOA-Titres agency for the third quarter of 2025, Côte d’Ivoire’s Eurobond maturing in 2032 is a euro-denominated issue with a fixed coupon and an initial size of 1 600 000 000 euros, making it one of Côte d’Ivoire’s main euro-denominated Eurobonds currently outstanding. Market data published in April 2026 show that this 2032 Eurobond, referenced under ISIN XS2264871828, remained outstanding with a residual duration of around five years and a final maturity on 30 January 2032, placing it at the core of the country’s external repayments in the coming decade.

This bond is therefore strategically located: close enough to weigh on the repayment profile, but still distant enough to be managed proactively through buyback or exchange operations as the market window opens for African issuers.

Why Abidjan uses buybacks: smoothing repayment peaks

The public debt statistical bulletin published by Côte d’Ivoire’s Treasury Directorate for the fourth quarter of 2025 recalls that liability-management exercises were already conducted in 2024 and 2025 to smooth maturities, notably around older Eurobond lines, in complement to new international issues. The IMF puts forward the same diagnosis, noting that these buyback operations are part of a broader debt-sustainability strategy combining longer maturities, currency diversification and active management of the nearest external-debt peaks.  In this context, the gradual buyback of the 2032 Eurobond is less about shrinking the debt stock immediately than about smoothing the repayment curve over the 2028–2036 period.

In practice, these operations pursue three aims: reducing hard-currency repayment spikes in specific years, improving the transparency of the debt profile for investors, and giving the Treasury more room to absorb terms-of-trade shocks, in particular those linked to cocoa.

How 2035–2036 issues finance the reprofiling

IMF staff recall that in March 2025 Côte d’Ivoire raised a long-maturity Eurobond, converted into euros, with the explicit objective of supporting its debt-management strategy, including buybacks and swaps on pre-existing lines. The public-debt bulletin details that these long-dated issues, including the Eurobond maturing in 2036, are designed to lengthen the average maturity of the portfolio and to complement buyback operations targeting bonds maturing between 2028 and 2032. Within this framework, the buyback of the 2032 Eurobond can be read as the counterpart of newer, longer issues that shift concentrated repayments five to seven years out into a schedule that stretches over 15 years or more.

In February 2026, a new international bond issue of 1.3 billion dollars was carried out with a final maturity of 15 years and an effective financing cost of around 5.39% in euros after hedging, presented as the lowest for an Ivorian operation and in Sub-Saharan Africa over the last five years, according to an official communication relayed by Abidjan.net. A sector analysis from Serrari Group notes that the proceeds of this 1.3-billion-dollar issue are intended both to finance the 2026 budget and to support debt-management operations through longer maturities, consistent with Côte d’Ivoire’s multi-year strategy to smooth its debt-repayment schedule and reduce near-term refinancing risks.  The combination of a favourable market window and a cost below the regional average gives room to fund buyback offers on lines such as the 2032 Eurobond.

Regional comparison: Côte d’Ivoire as a liability-management test case in Sub-Saharan Africa

In early 2026, Kenya’s Treasury likewise undertook a partial buyback targeting Eurobonds maturing in 2028 and 2032, accepting the repurchase of about 415.4 million dollars in notes according to results published via the London Stock Exchange, underlining the growing role of liability-management exercises in the region. An analysis relayed by Capital Business explains that this Kenyan operation, funded by a dual-tranche Eurobond of 2.25 billion dollars, is part of an IMF-supported programme and explicitly aims to reduce refinancing risks via early buybacks of Eurobonds maturing in 2028 and 2032.  Côte d’Ivoire fits the same pattern, but with a longer track record of liability-management operations initiated as early as 2020 and expanded in 2024 and 2025, as documented in joint IMF–authorities reports.

A November 2020 precedent, documented in an Article IV consultation, already mentions a significant buyback of bonds maturing in 2028 and 2032, combined with a reduction in euro-denominated lines,  confirming that active management of the Eurobond curve is embedded in the Ivorian debt strategy.  IMF country updates note that this strategy has gradually been anchored in a three-pronged programme combining an Extended Credit Facility, an Extended Fund Facility and a Resilience and Sustainability Facility, with an emphasis on mobilising concessional resources while maintaining selective access to international markets.  In that context, the 2032 Eurobond becomes an adjustment variable in a portfolio where the key question is no longer market access, but the quality of the debt profile.

What it means for Ivorian sovereign risk

Ivorian authorities stress in their bulletins that buyback and exchange operations contribute to lengthening the average maturity of public debt and to better spreading the external debt-service burden over the medium term. Investor analyses indicate that the February 2026 issue at a cost below the region’s historical average improves Côte d’Ivoire’s credit curve and reinforces the perception of prudent management at a time when several Sub-Saharan issuers still face high risk premia.  This combination of competitive funding costs and targeted buybacks on lines such as the 2032 Eurobond reduces the probability of a “debt wall” in the early 2030s, something that is reflected in the relative stability of spreads on Ivorian paper.

For investors, the key is now to watch three indicators closely: the actual volume repurchased on the 2032 line in each operation, the evolution of the average maturity of external debt, and the state’s fiscal capacity to absorb any rise in refinancing costs if the market window were to narrow.

Key takeaways

• The 2032 euro-denominated Eurobond, initially sized at  euros, sits at the centre of Côte d’Ivoire’s external repayment profile.
• Repeated liability-management exercises, documented by the Treasury and the IMF, aim to smooth 2028–2036 maturities by funding buybacks through new long-dated issues.
• The billion-dollar Eurobond issued in February 2026 at an effective cost of about % in euros creates room for buyback offers on existing lines, including the 2032 note.
• Côte d’Ivoire is positioning itself as one of Africa’s laboratories for active debt management, alongside countries such as Kenya that are also multiplying early buybacks.
• Ivorian sovereign risk will hinge on the capacity to continue 2032 buyback operations while maintaining a fiscal path consistent with the IMF-supported programme.

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