Burkina Faso: The digitisation of public administration – a key initiative of the Progressive People’s Revolution under Captain Ibrahim Traoré
Comrade Captain Ibrahim Traoré, President of Faso, has made the digital transformation the administration of Burkina Faso one of the major pillars of his state reform. As early as April 2023, the National Forum on the Dematerialization of Administrative Procedures laid the groundwork for this ambition, placed at the heart of the second axis of the Transition Action Plan, with a clear objective: to offer citizens simplified access to public services while fighting incivility and poor financial governance.
This momentum has produced tangible results. The digitalization of applications for nationality certificates and criminal records has enabled the processing of over 467,000 requests in two years, generating 337 million CFA francs in revenue. On May 5, 2026, a national e-services portal, accessible at service-public.gov.bf, was officially launched to centralize access to all online administrative procedures and combat fraudulent websites.
The judicial sector has not been left behind, with the dematerialization of complaint filing, prison visit permits, and commercial register acts.
This transformation is part of a broader national strategy for digital sovereignty, articulated notably around the “Zero White Zones” initiative, aimed at achieving full mobile coverage across the territory, and “Zero Data Abroad,” to guarantee local hosting of public data.
During the 20th Digital Week in November 2025, the Head of State summed up his conviction: “no sector will develop without digital technology.”
On July 30, 2026, the Council of Ministers took a new step by adopting a decree organizing mass registration for the issuance of the unique electronic identifier for natural persons, a major advance toward a reliable and sovereign digital identity for every Burkinabe.
A review workshop held in early June 2026 in Bobo-Dioulasso also provided a critical assessment of platforms already dematerialized and those still pending, demonstrating a commitment to continuous evaluation rather than mere announcement.
Olivier TOE
