1. Set content-type in /index.php

   header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

2. Replace ‘utf8_general_ci’ with ‘utf8_unicode_ci’ in config/database.php
3. /config/config.php $config[‘charset’] = ‘UTF-8’;

Reference:

https://philsturgeon.uk/codeigniter/2009/08/17/UTF-8-support-for-CodeIgniter/