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October 14, 2006

News from Burkina Faso

* Football: Burkina beat Senegal. Burkina beat Senegal 1-0 in the African Nations Cup qualifier last week. Burkina have a good, but inconsistent team. In the World Cup qualifiers, they defeated South Africa, but lost to Cape Verde, to lose out on their chance for glory. Burkina is 89th in the FIFA world rankings - a full 12 places below Wales!

* Planes and Trains. Burkina is to get a new international airport 35km north-east of the capital Ouagadougou - which will probably put it near the president's home town of Ziniare. There are also plans to build new railways to Ghana and Mali, and possibly even Niger and Togo. These would open up transport in the region and reduce Burkina's dependancy on the sole line at present which runs through troubled Cote d'Ivoire.

* The Growth and Collapse of Gold Mines. Gold is the third largest export of Burkina Faso. However, most gold is hand-mined by locals (artisanal mining), who sell the gold at 5p/gram to the government. It is a dangerous and unhealthy process, which nevertheless provides much needed income for up to 200,000 Burkinabe. The dangers were highlighted by the collapse of a mine at Poura in August, killing 10 people. The government is now trying to privatise the mines, in an attempt to manage them better for the alleviation of poverty and boost employment, and Canadian and Australian companies in particular are moving into the country. Reuters reports: "This year, the government expects to receive 1.3 billion CFA (US $2.5 million) in annual taxes from mining companies, and foresees the creation of 800 new jobs every year for the next eight years. It also stipulated in its new mining code that companies must invest in community development projects, such as the building of schools, housing and wells." However, critics say that many more people will lose out by being driven from their traditional mining, and that the companies are unlikely to uphold their social responsibilities.

* French help Burkina Cotton IRIN report that France has stepped in to help boost Burkina Faso's beleaguered cotton sector with a grant of $13.4m. Cotton is Burkina's main export, and it has one of the most efficient cotton industries in the world. However, there has been loss of motivation to grown cotton, especially because of low world prices for the commodity, which have been driven down by US cotton subsidies.


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Posted by Keith at October 14, 2006 07:54 AM

Comments

The Burkina football team has recently been overhauled. All the old players (sons of chiefs and commercants) have been replaced by younger players who are not necessarily well-connected but can at least play football. Everyone here sees this as a very positive development - the de-centralisation of Burkinabe football. Might we at last see some players NOT from Ouaga or Bobo? Might we see one or two from Gorom-Gorom and Djibo? Watch this space...

Posted by: steve at October 16, 2006 03:37 AM

Keith- I checked out the link to the Reuters article, and couldn't find a specific reference to Canadian companies. Any idea where I could find that information?

Posted by: wilsonian at October 17, 2006 11:42 PM

Hi. Previous stuff I have read has highlighted Canadian companies - for example see here:
http://www.voiceinthedesert.org.uk/keith/archives/2006/01/gold_in_the_mid.html
Otherwise, try a google search to find out more.

Posted by: Keith at October 18, 2006 07:18 PM