Burkina Faso - High growth from a low base
Burkina Faso is one of the world’s poorest countries when seen as GDP per capita. However, it is also a country of 25 million people growing by roughly another half million people each year presently. By 2050 they are estimated to have a population of 37 million.
The level of popuplation growth also means growth in cargo volumes. Sure, if people – on average – do not have much to spend, then there is also limited scope for imported goods. Yet some goods are still imported and in need of transportation.
But more importantly, the country is going through major investments in especially the mining and energy sector. This drives not only added goods and trade, but also helps the economy to grow.
Looking at the GDP growth, Burkina Faso grew 5.3% in 2025. This is not only higher than the global average of 3.5% but also higher than the sub-saharan African region as a whole which grew 4.5%.
Seen over the past 10 years, Burkina Faso’s GDP has grown 60% whereas the rest of the world has grown 36%. Burkina Faso went through 2 coups in 2022, with the current government being run by the military. However, this new government still sees the economy outpacing the global average as growth has been 14% for first 3 full years after the coup versus 10.7% for the world as an average.
The high growth is therefore a longer-term phenomenon and clearly positive for the country.
Gold is a by far the largest component of Burkina Faso’s exports, whereas imports are especially focused on industrial equipment for the mining and energy sector.
As Burkina Faso is landlocked, the main ocean gateways are located in the ports in Ghana, Icory Coast and Togo and hence being either trucked, or using the rail line from Ivory Coast.
Some cargo also finds its way from Burkina Faso to Niger and Mali, although the security situation makes this a somewhat unpredictable affair. As an example, cargo moving from Ouagadougou to Niger’s capital Niamey has to move with a military escort, but the timing of the escort is not known ahead of time meaning that trucks and their driver might at times end up waiting a week or two.
Given the demographic and economic outlook for the country, it is clear that the movement of cargo along the roads and the rail line wil increase significantly. This will put pressure on the roads and rail itself which likely will have to undergo improvements. But importantly this also calls for the development of inland container depots in Burkina Faso itself. Having ICDs allowing for cargo and documents handling will be necessary for the flows of cargo to come and certainly also presents an opportunity for further logistics investment.
A specific challenge in the country is the state corporation called Faso Transit et Logistique (FTL). This was created in 2025 and is a result of the government wanting to increase their control over logistics operations in the country. Simplified, this ends up with a situation where logistics companies active with cargo to and from Burkina Faso have to work with FTL on a range of elements, most notably for example customs clearance, but not limited to this.
Seen from the perspective of a “pure” business model, the need to involve a state-owned enterprise in some cases effectively as a middle-man between authorities and foreign logistics companies adds cost and complecity to the supply chain.
Seen from the perspective of the government of Burkina Faso, this is part of a wider political drive to have a stronger domestic control over key industries and sectors with the aim of keeping more value-adding activities locally and not see value siphoned away outside the country.
A different example of the country’s drive to ensure more value stays within country is the inauguration of the country’s first gold refinery in Setember 2026. With gold being, by far, the largest export commodity such a move makes sense from a national perspective in order to attempt to retain a larger part of the value chain within the country.
Overall, from a growth perspective Burkina Faso is not only a country about to see large growth – this is already a reality as the growth has almost been double that of global growth in the past 10 years. This places large requirements on growth in the transportation and logistics sector as well
Furthermore, the demographic growth will add to this need for transportation growth.
It should, however, also be noted that the political focus in the country is to retain as much value-add within the country as possible, and additionally to have an element of government control over key industries which includes the transportation sector. The latter is not only economically motivated, but is also seen from a security perspective where the unrest in the wider Sahel region is clearly a concern in Burkina Faso as well.
As such the opportunities are clearly there for stakeholders who are willing and able to work with local entities, but it does require an approach which is not necessarily a simple copy-paste from other countries.
Thank you to Eleonore and Tresor from OBT for showing me the on-the-ground work involved with mocing cargo in Ouagadougou
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