The Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ first house of the Lord in west Africa’s Republic of Côte d’Ivoire — has opened its doors to the media and the public for a short period prior to its dedication next month.
The temple’s open house phase began Monday morning, April 28, with a media day held at the temple in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s economic capital.
A pair of General Authority Seventies — Elder Alfred Kyungu, president of the Church’s Africa West Area, and Elder Kevin R. Duncan, executive director of the Church’s Temple Department, welcomed local media representatives to a morning news conference and then led the visiting media on a tour of the temple.
“Without a doubt, the temple is truly the house of the Lord,” said Elder Kyungu during the news conference. “This temple is God’s answer to countless prayers offered in faith by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It marks the end of long road trips to the Accra Ghana Temple. The temple is the shining symbol of divine light and knowledge. It is a sacred place of learning and comfort, where the soul is strengthened and can find peace and joy in the Lord.”
In conjunction with Monday’s media day, the Church released interior and exterior images of the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Invited-guest tours will follow and continue through Wednesday, April 30. The temple’s public open house is scheduled to run from Thursday, May 1, through Saturday, May 17, excluding Sundays.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple on May 25, 2025, with the 10 a.m. session to be broadcast to all units in the temple district.
The Abidjan temple was one of three new temples — along with since-dedicated houses of the Lord in Bangkok, Thailand, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti — that were announced by late Church President Thomas S. Monson on April 5, 2015, during the Sunday morning session of April 2015 general conference.
Construction on the Abidjan temple began following a Nov. 8, 2018, groundbreaking ceremony, with Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presiding over the services and offering a prayer dedicating the temple site and the construction processes. The temple was built adjacent to the Cocody Côte d’Ivoire Stake Center.
The Church in Ivory Coast
In his April 2015 general conference address (the same conference as the aforementioned temple announcements), Elder Andersen highlighted a pair of the Church’s “pioneer” couples in the country — Lucien and Agathe Affoue and Philippe and Annelies Assard — who separately had joined the Church in Europe before relocating to Ivory Coast in the 1980s and meeting and forming a Sunday School.
The country’s first converts were baptized in November 1987, with the first branch formally organized in January 1989. By the end of 1990, Ivory Coast was home to 350 Church members.
In April 1991, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire gave official recognition to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the mission headquarters coming to Abidjan in May 1993 and the first stake and first meetinghouse following both on Aug. 17, 1997.
Today, the country is home to 67,000 Latter-day Saints in 32 stakes and districts and nearly 270 congregations.
Church members in Abidjan, the country’s largest urban center on the southern Atlantic coast, currently attend the Accra Ghana Temple, which requires a 12-hour one-way trip by car to reach.
Design and features
The Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple is a two-level concrete structure of about 17,360 square feet, with the zinc-covered metal spire and the Angel Moroni statue atop — finished with palladium leaf to match the spire’s color — reaching more than 85 feet from the ground.
The temple’s color scheme is a calming combination of blues, greens and purples, with the touches of magenta accents said to represent the vibrancy of the Abidjan community.
The designs and motifs feature the patterns and designs of local indigenous people, the local culture and the building’s mid-century modern style. They include simple geometric shapes in repeated patterns; clean, angular lines; and textures created by repeated vertical, angled lines in a style known as raking.
The flooring has stone sourced from Spain and Brazil as well as modular carpet tiles, walk-off tiles and nylon rugs, the latter in the entry, celestial room, bride’s room and sealing rooms.
The art-glass design features motifs based on local tribal designs, and the doors, doorframes and millwork is made of sapele mahogany native to Africa.
The Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple will be the eighth on or just off of the African continent, joining the Praia Cape Verde, Accra Ghana, Aba Nigeria, Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo, Durban South Africa and Johannesburg South Africa temples and the Nairobi Kenya Temple, which will be dedicated the week prior to its Abidjan counterpart. Four more temples in Africa are under construction, another two are scheduled with May groundbreakings, and 15 more temples are in various stages of planning and design.
Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple
Location: Ilot 118 Riviera Attoban, Bonoumin, Cocody, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Announced: April 5, 2015, by President Thomas S. Monson
Groundbreaking: Nov. 8, 2018, presided over by Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Public open house: May 1-17, 2025, excluding Sundays
To be dedicated: May 25, 2025, by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Property size: 3.23 acres
Building size: About 17,362 square feet (1,612.96 square meters)
Building height: About 85 feet (25.83 meters)
