Children throughout the world attend school and learn to read in a language of instruction (LoI) other than the language(s) they speak at home, which is one factor contributing to poor reading outcomes. Understanding reading development in multilingual, Majority World contexts is important for improving reading skills globally. In a linguistically diverse sample of children in rural Côte d’Ivoire, we examined how home language experience (monolingual, regional bilingual [two Ivorian languages], French bilingual [French + Ivorian language], French multilingual [French + two Ivorian languages]) relates to children’s (N = 1335) language and reading skills. Bilingual children (French and regional) outperformed monolingual children on French language tasks, suggesting bilingual experience benefits language skills regardless of whether it includes the LoI (French). However, this language advantage did not extend to reading; there were no differences in reading scores between groups and all children leveraged phonological awareness for reading regardless of their home language experience. The findings suggest that bilingual/multilingual education programs, and reading instruction that strengthens language skills, may support reading outcomes in multilingual, Majority World contexts.