16 June 2025

The Burkinabe government has announced an ambitious plan to deploy 800 telecom towers by 2026, aiming to connect previously unserved dead zones and accelerate the country’s goal of widespread connectivity by 2027. Of these, 250 sites will be part of the Digital Transformation Acceleration Project (PACT DIGITAL), with the remaining 550 financed by the Universal Access and Service Fund (FASU).

This initiative is part of a broader effort to cover 1,000 dead zones nationwide within three years, up from 183 connected zones by 2022 at a cost of approximately $10.7 million. Current coverage rates stand at 85% for 2G, 64% for 3G, and 46% for 4G, with internet penetration estimated at 17% in 2023. Mobile phone ownership is high, with about 55.9% of the population owning a device and roughly 27.5 million SIM cards for a population of 23.4 million.