Madar (Ouagadougou) - Burkina Faso plans to mobilise 30 billion CFA francs over five years for a 2026-2030 national artificial intelligence roadmap that aims to create 5,000 specialised jobs and train at least 500 experts and 140 community leaders, according to a presentation on Friday, 23 October 2026 by Dr Yaya Traore, permanent secretary for innovation and the monitoring of emerging digital technologies, reported on Sunday, 25 October by Lefaso.net.
The document, drawn up over ten months of work and consultations, was validated on 19 June 2026, but its official publication is still pending. It is part of the 12 digital-transition projects for 2030, in particular the 11th, devoted to "artificial intelligence serving all Burkinabe".
The provisional budget is split across five areas: 10.5 billion CFA francs (35%) for developing and testing AI solutions, 6 billion (20%) each for sovereign infrastructure and data preparation, 4.5 billion (15%) for training and 3 billion (10%) for governance and coordination. Traore acknowledged the amount may look modest compared with the ambitions, but said it provides a base to start priority actions gradually.
The roadmap includes 23 proofs of concept addressing four challenges: security and social cohesion, public governance, human capital and infrastructure. Examples cited include detecting hate content and deepfakes, spotting anomalies in public procurement, assisting medical diagnosis and translation in health centres.
The first phase will focus on three national languages, Moore, Dioula and Fulfulde, and agreements have been signed with the national broadcaster RTB to collect language data. The roadmap also targets hosting at least 80% of the relevant data inside the country, with data and models remaining state property. An artificial intelligence council is planned, though whether it will report to the presidency or the prime minister's office has yet to be decided.
The year 2026 is devoted to the launch, 2027-2028 to speeding up the first applications, followed by scaling up the solutions that meet technical, ethical and security requirements, with a review planned in 2028. Traore listed risks including poor data quality, connectivity problems and infrastructure outages in rural areas, and excessive dependence on technical and financial partners.
