In his New Year’s message to the great people of Burkina Faso, Africa’s youngest President outlined some of his major plans for the country in 2024. Part of what he listed was the creation of a special rapid intervention brigade that would bring together elite units and elements of the special forces, achieving the goal of food self-sufficiency and launching the anti-corruption machine to tackle corruption in the country. This is amazing and honestly, we shouldn’t be so surprised after all because this is Captain Ibrahim Traire we are talking about here, an African leader who has proven time and time again that he is very much interested in the welfare and growth of his country and he is ready to do whatever it takes even going against the powers that be to achieve this goal. But, even aside from his new plans for 2024, President Traore has already launched some mega projects that once completed will transform Burkina Faso. Some of these projects will be completed in 2024, so you better watch out for the new Burkina Faso. So, what are these mega projects?
Number one: Construction of the new Ouagadougou Airport
This project was launched under the regime of former and ousted leader Rock March Christian Kabore in 2021 with a French company, Meridian. However, when Captain Traore took power in 2022, one of the first things he did was to review the agreement made between the Burkina Faso government and the French company, and guess what he found? President Traore spotted several flaws in the deal including the taxation regime, duration of the concession, and discrepancy between some of the provisions of the contract and the domestic and international legal provisions. Well, we shouldn’t be surprised after all what do you expect from the French when all they know is only to look out for their own interests? Anyway, immediately after President Traore discovered the flaws, he revoked the deal and awarded the contract for different phases of the construction to different companies including Sogea-Satom Burkina Faso and Emirates Builders.
The new airport once completed will replace the existing Ouagadougou-Taamsê International Airport, first built in the 1960. The project comprises a 3500m runway and a 17,000 sqm terminal facility with the capacity to be able to handle one million passengers annually. This project is expected to be completed in April 2024.
Number two: Construction of a Gold Refinery
In November 2023, Ibrahim Traore laid the foundation for the first-ever Burkina Faso national gold refinery. This refinery is currently being constructed in partnership with Marena Gold, a local gold Burkinabe company, and will have an annual refining capacity of 150 tons. According to Traore “There’s no longer any question of us taking our gold abroad for refining. We’ll refine it on-site because we know the real content of the raw gold that comes out. So, a few months from now, we should expect to see the refinery producing its first gold. The Refinery will house a jewelry store and is expected to create 100 direct jobs and over 5,000 indirect jobs. So, not only will the country begin to receive better value from its gold but it will also create employment opportunities. This is great news and shows that President Traore knows what he is doing.
Number three: Modernization of all roads
Nine months after Traore took over power, over seventy kilometers of roads have been built, and others are currently under construction to facilitate transportation within the framework of economic development, along with bridges to ease river crossing. The modernization of roads in Burkina Faso involves the construction of new roads, widening of existing ones, and upgrading of gravel roads to paved surfaces and the Traore administration has been hard at work ensuring that the roads in Burkina Faso are up to standard. Since Traore embarked on this project, the people living in the regions where the new roads were constructed have expressed their gratitude to the President. “I am very moved, the entire population is very satisfied with President Traoré, who remembers us,” stated a Burkinabe citizen.
Number four: Nuclear Power Plant
Burkina Faso is currently one of the least electrified countries in the world with only 21 percent of the population connected to power. However, this is about to change because, in October 2023, Burkina Faso signed a deal with Russia for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country in order to increase access to power in the country. According to Captain Traore, the nuclear power plant will not only help to meet the country’s energy demands but also that of other neighboring countries such as Niger. According to the deal signed between the two countries, Burkina Faso will achieve 95% electricity access for urban areas and 50% for rural areas by 2030. Currently, the proposed date of the construction has not been released but we are hopeful that more news about the nuclear power plant will be released as the year goes by.
Number five: The Sandini Dam
The Sandini Dam was launched in 2019 however a series of delays and challenges have delayed its completion. However, when Traore assumed power in 2022, the Sandini Dam project was nearly 70 percent complete. But, he has made it known that finishing the project is a top priority for his administration and he has taken swift actions to ensure its timely completion by allocating additional resources and urging the contractors to expedite their work. The project is expected to be completed in 2024 and once finished will provide irrigation to over a hundred thousand hectares of land, greatly boosting agricultural production and improving food security throughout the country. In addition, the dam can generate electricity which would reduce Burkina Faso’s reliance on imported energy and increase access to electricity in the country.
Number six: Agricultural and Rural Development project
Just like Thomas Sankara, one of Ibrahim Traore’s goals for Burkina Faso is to achieve food self-sufficiency, and to achieve this he has launched two major agricultural projects. These projects known as the Operation Agro-Pastoral Offensive and the Presidential Initiative for Food Self-Sufficiency were launched in 2023 and aimed to revolutionize the Burkina Faso agricultural sector and improve food security. The project includes planting a certain number of areas, providing inputs to producers, and improving seeds produced by Burkinabe researchers. Given the satisfactory results of this program, President Traore launched a challenge for food self-sufficiency in 2024 and resources are currently being mobilized for this purpose to support producers. According to Captain Traore, Machines such as tractors have been ordered as part of the initiative, researchers have been reinforced and strengthened to find the right seeds. The government also opened the Koupela factory to manufacture fertilizer on site and make the cost accessible to producers.’ Aside from this, Traore also launched the country in the transformation of agricultural products through the creation of industries in order to support Agriculture.
Number seven: Museum of Civilization of Burkina Faso
The Ouagadougou Museum of Civilization is an ambitious cultural project aimed at enhancing Burkina Faso’s historical and artistic legacy. The Museum will be developed on a 10-hectare plot of land in the Zonal District near the international airport, with a main building measuring 12000 square feet and housing display rooms, teaching spaces, reserve laboratories and auditoriums. It will also have a landscape park with sculptures. The Museum of Civilization will be a space for recollection, conversation, and creation, emphasising the diversity and depth of Burkinabe culture.
Number eight: Community Entrepreneurship Project
In June 2023, Ibrahim Traore launched a community entrepreneurship program to stimulate the country’s endogenous and inclusive development. The program aims to stimulate the creation of community businesses specializing in the production, processing, and marketing of local products in sectors like agriculture, mining, and industry. It will also promote the creation of job opportunities for young people. The project is led by the community entrepreneurship promotion agency APEC, with the technical supervision of the cooperative company SCOOP-CA. The community businesses created will solely be owned by the Burkina Faso population.
According to APEC, it intends to start the initiative with the expansion of tomato paste manufacturer SOFATO to include two new processing plants and the establishment of a semi-mechanized gold mining company for operations on three sites. Since its launch on June 12th, 2023, the community entrepreneurship subscription operation has recorded to date 38,500 subscribers for 1 billion 900 million CFA francs collected and the number of subscribers per day is estimated at 600 Burkinabè citizens.
Number nine: Ouagadougou High Speed Train Project
The Ouagadougou high-speed train project is a railway project that aims to link the capitals of Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast over a distance of one thousand one hundred and fifty kilometers. The railway will reduce travel time between the two capitals from 36 hours to 6 hours and transport more than five million passengers and ten million tons of goods annually. This project will promote regional trade, tourism, and sustainable development. The Ouagadougou train project is the result of cooperation between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso where an agreement was signed in 2021 to carry out the project.
With all these mega projects in place, we are once again reassured that Captain Traore is committed not just to improving security in Burkina Faso but also to ensuring rapid development all over the country. He is indeed a true leader, one that every African leader should emulate.
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