"We are going to replace all government vehicles with electric cars in order to save fuel". These are the words of Ibrahim Traoré. The President of the transition in Burkina Faso has just announced a series of measures to accelerate economic and sustainable development.
The economic situation in most West African countries has been weakened in recent years by Covid-19, terrorist attacks in the Sahel and global warming. In Burkina Faso, the transitional government is stepping up its efforts to strengthen the resilience of the country’s 22 million inhabitants. Among the most recent measures is a reduction in the cost of living for the state, including spending on the mobility of civil servants.
The announcement, reported by the Agence d’information du Burkina (AIB), was made recently by Ibrahim Traoré, the President of the transition, who plans to “create an electric vehicle manufacturing plant” by December 2024. As a result, civil servants in the Burkina Faso administration will be able to use more fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly modes of transport, given the high levels of air pollution in Ouagadougou.
This decision, which is primarily aimed at tackling the rampant consumption of petrol and diesel by public servants with combustion-powered vehicles, comes some time after the publication of a report by the High Authority for State Control and the Fight against Corruption (ASCE-LC). It shows that the presidential palace in the capital spent up to 72 million CFA francs (108,000 euros) on fuel and lubricants between 2020 and 2021.
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That’s a bit steep when you consider that 40% of Burkina Faso’s population lives below the poverty line, and that the West African country is consistently ranked 184th out of 191 in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI). Reducing the cost of living for the Burkina Faso government should help to turn things around by focusing on more sustainable investments. This is the case for the future electric vehicle manufacturing plant, for which no technical details are yet available.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
