Burkina Faso is on a national data ownership and control drive. The mineral-rich West African nation on Friday, January 23rd, 2026, inaugurated two state-of-the-art datacenters which are dedicated to public administration.  

According to a January 23rd 2026 publication by EcoFin Agency, citing government’s figures, the national data project is estimated at CFA16 billion ($28.6 million).

The tech investment, according to officials, fits into the country’s digital sovereignty strategy which promotes hosting national data within Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Digital Transition, Posts and Telecommunications said the move is to promote data sovereignty, control and security.

“This project represents an intermediate step toward the construction of a national Big Datacenter, designed to repatriate all digital data from the public administration and private sector that are currently hosted outside the country,” the Ministry said in a statement published on Facebook on Friday.

Launching the national data infrastructure, the nation’s prime minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo expressed anticipated gains to emanate from the development, citing challenges around national data being hosted outside the country.

“When you have all your data on the outside, you are vulnerable to the dictators and will of others. This is what we want to end and we are on the right track,” the prime minister said at the launch.

Burkina Faso is rolling its “zero data outside” initiative and the recently launched tech development signifies that trajectory.

The West Africa Democracy Radion (WADR) reports an estimated savings between 85 and 90 billion CFA ($153 – $63m) over the next ten years through reduced outsourcing and improved efficiency. 

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