Buy an Ivory Coast eSIM Online

Mobile internet, 4G and 5G in Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire has a large, dynamic mobile market, with three operators: Orange Côte d'Ivoire, MTN Côte d'Ivoire and Moov Africa Côte d'Ivoire, all three confirmed on regulator ARTCI's own site. Its quarterly report for the first quarter of 2026 counts 60.2 million mobile subscriptions (a slight dip, -0.6% year on year): Orange holds 51% of the market (that share down 3.6% year on year), MTN 28% (+2.7%) and Moov 21% (+2.4%). Mobile internet is growing far faster: 40.9 million subscriptions, up 15.2% on a year earlier, with MTN the fastest grower (+22.5%), followed by Moov (+10.1%) and Orange (+12.1%).

ARTCI's report contains market shares, not a 4G/5G coverage percentage. On 5G the news is good, even if it arrives via an Orange business newsletter quoting ARTCI figures: the country counted 1.6 million active 5G subscribers in the first quarter of 2026, up 220% year on year, with 5G urban population coverage of 35% across Orange, MTN and Moov Africa combined — ahead of around 18% in other UEMOA capitals such as Dakar and Lomé, and average 5G speeds of 210 Mbps in Abidjan. Build-out keeps moving too: over 1,200 new 4G and 5G antennas went up in the quarter, nearly 40% of them aimed at rural areas, part of a programme targeting 300 more localities in 2026. For 4G itself, no clean, current national coverage figure from ARTCI exists, so we quote no percentage.

Roaming in Côte d'Ivoire without an eSIM

Côte d'Ivoire is outside the EU and the EEA, so 'Roam Like at Home' does not apply. That arrangement covers the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, along with Moldova and Ukraine — Côte d'Ivoire is not among them. Your Belgian or Dutch bundle therefore stays behind: your operator bills every megabyte at its own out-of-bundle roaming tariff, without the EU price caps. Check that tariff with your provider before you go.

Buying a local SIM in Côte d'Ivoire

Decree No 2017-193 of 22 March 2017 governs the identification of telecom subscribers in Côte d'Ivoire. Its Article 2 requires that SIM cards be acquired only at agencies, offices, branches or other locations authorised by operators and notified to ARTCI; selling outside those channels, or selling a pre-activated or already-identified card, is illegal. A re-identification campaign is also under way, asking existing subscribers to present themselves again with, among other documents, a national ID card, a biometric driving licence, a biometric passport or a biometric identity certificate.

What that decree does not spell out is the exact document a visitor buying a brand-new card must show — the text describes where to buy, not what ID a first-time buyer needs, and the biometric-passport detail comes from coverage of existing subscribers re-identifying. The one safe fact: a passport is generally accepted within Côte d'Ivoire's identification regime, and the purchase must happen at an authorised outlet. The Ariya eSIM skips that whole step: no shop, no re-identification, already active on arrival.