# Synopsis

Infrastructure contributed 1.3 percentage points to Burkina Faso’s annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the past decade, much of it due to improvements in information and communication technology (ICT). Raising the country’s infrastructure endowment to that of the region’s middle-income countries (MICs) could boost annual growth by more than 3 percentage points per capita. Today, Burkina Faso’s infrastructure indicators look relatively good when compared with other lowincome countries (LICs) in Africa, but they remain far below the levels found in Africa’s MICs.

Burkina Faso has made significant progress in developing its infrastructure in recent years. Thanks to the rapid modernization of the ICT sector, around 60 percent of the population lives within range of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) cell-phone signal. The expansion of safe water and sanitation technologies in urban areas since the late 1990s and the establishment of a system for funding road maintenance (by reducing the cost of road travel) should pay long-term dividends to the economy.

Looking ahead, the country’s greatest infrastructure challenge lies in the transport sector, for maintaining existing assets and improving logistics demand, strengthening overall institutional capacity, and increasing political commitment and regional cooperation. Investment in extending road access to agricultural areas is also needed. A second need is to reduce the cost of electricity by developing the power trade and improving the operational efficiency of the national power utility. Finally, low levels of access to improved sanitation and rural water and sanitation services are holding Burkina Faso back from attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Addressing Burkina Faso’s infrastructure deficit by bringing it up to the level of the regional leader, Mauritius, would require sustained expenditure of $613 million per year over the next decade—two-thirds for capital investment and one-third for operations and maintenance. One-third of this relates to the achievement of the MDGs for water supply and sanitation, a quarter to improving the reliability and availability of power generation capacity, and another quarter to improving transport modes. At just over 11 percent of GDP, this level of effort would be comparable to what China has spent in recent years—a significant stretch for Burkina Faso’s economy.

As of 2007, the gap between the amount needed and the amount available was $165 million per year, or 4 percent of GDP. That gap could be cut in half by the adoption of more appropriate technologies to meet infrastructure targets in the transport and the water and sanitation sectors. Even if Burkina Faso were unable to increase infrastructure spending or otherwise close the infrastructure funding gap, simply by moving from a 10- to 18-year horizon the country could address its efficiency gap and meet the posited infrastructure targets.

# The continental perspective

The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) has gathered and analyzed extensive data on infrastructure across almost all African countries, including Burkina Faso. The results have been presented in reports covering different areas of infrastructure—including ICT, irrigation, power, transport,