Ferkessédougou is an important centre of local development as the nearest large town on the north–south road to the main border posts for crossing into Burkina Faso and Mali.

The economy of the Ferkessédougou area is overwhelmingly agricultural, with larger scale commercial farming based on huge cotton and sugarcane plantations.

[3] A burgeoning tourist industry is based upon Ferkessédougou's proximity to the large Comoé National Park (to the east) and Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (to the west).

The Dioula, as they are called in Ivory Coast, reached the area and settled the nearby city of Kong in the 12th century.

The town of Ferkessédougou was founded in the 19th century by Ferkessé, a Niarafola leader pushed to the west by the expansion of the Kong Empire.

[4] On the southern edge of the Sahel—tropical Savanna belt, Ferkessédougou gets a mean annual rainfall of 1400 mm, making it drier than much of Côte d'Ivoire.