Abidjan, the capital of the Côte d’Ivoire, is a lively place and the most western looking of any African city that we’ve visited so far. The skyline is dominated by skyscrapers and there are roads without too many potholes. Football advertising boards have been a regular thing in West Africa but not quite as much as in Abidjan.
Everywhere you look you can see the big telecommunications companies MTN and Orange slogging it out. MTN is an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup and they are flaunting that fact. But Orange is the clear winner here. Côte d’Ivoire’s Elephants play in an all orange kit and the huge billboards with players and fans dressed in orange are impossible to miss. They are especially effective since everyone’s focus is turning to the World Cup now.