Burkina Faso electrification plan sends 44 brigades to wire the country
Burkina Faso’s Council of Ministers has adopted a decree creating Faso Wa-Fulu, a presidential initiative for universal access to electricity by 2030, with more than CFA2,800 billion budgeted over ten years and 44 electrification brigades that will employ 1,200 people, in a country where 34.2% of people had access in 2024.
More than CFA2,800 billion, about €4.3 billion, is budgeted over ten years for Faso Wa-Fulu. Burkina Faso’s Council of Ministers created the presidential initiative by decree on 22 October, at a meeting chaired by Captain Ibrahim Traoré. Its target is universal access to electricity across the country by 2030.
Access stood at 34.2% of the population in 2024, according to the National Energy Pact published in June 2026. The figure was 87.83% in urban areas and 10.21% in rural areas.
The initiative aims to electrify 6,700 new localities and reach 3.5 million more households and businesses. The government puts the number of people this would reach at about 17.9 million.
Its first component sends 44 electrification brigades across the country, with CFA22 billion set aside for them. The brigades will employ 1,200 people, according to the Council of Ministers.
Faso Wa-Fulu means “energy for all” in the San language and runs through the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Quarries. The national electricity company Sonabel is among the agencies carrying it out. Other components extend distribution lines and fund generation and high-voltage transmission.
Energy minister Yacouba Zabré Gouba said the initiative “will stretch over a period of 10 years”. An acceleration period comes first, followed by “a second phase of five years devoted to consolidating the gains”, he said.
Burkina Faso transports about 40% of its petroleum products through Ghana, up from 15% two years earlier. 3News reported the figure on 23 October, after Ghana’s energy minister met a delegation from SONABHY, the national hydrocarbons company.
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