Burkina Faso: A decisive step towards consolidating the economy and national sovereignty
The stock exchange listing of the SONABHY 8.10% 2025-2031 Debt Securitization Common Fund marks a turning point in the financial history of Burkina Faso. Beyond the impressive figure of over 34 billion CFA francs mobilized, the event reveals a major political fact: the methodical assertion of a state reclaiming control over its economic levers in a demanding regional and international context. This first national debt securitization is the concrete expression of a deliberate political and economic vision.
Under the leadership of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso has undertaken a profound restructuring of its economic and institutional architecture.
Reform is no longer just declared in speeches; it is now materializing through tangible instruments.
By offering its guarantee to a strategic state-owned company like SONABHY, the Burkinabe state demonstrates its ability to secure market confidence while channelling savings toward investments of high national value.
Here, securitization becomes an act of sovereignty, transforming an internal receivable into immediate operational capacity; without concession and without dependency.
The success of the operation, oversubscribed at 114%, reflects broad-based support, both popular and regional.
It reveals a climate of restored credibility, where transparency and governance rigor have now become political hallmarks.
By mobilizing savings from the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) zone, Burkina Faso affirms its place in the regional financial arena; no longer as a constrained borrower, but as a structuring, innovative, and respected actor.
The objective pursued is clear: to strengthen national hydrocarbon storage capacity.
In a country facing complex security and geopolitical challenges, energy security is not a technical luxury but a condition for stability, continuity of the state, and social peace.
In this sense, this financial infrastructure directly supports the national effort toward resilience and contributes to consolidating the economic foundation essential for any lasting sovereignty.
This operation illustrates a clear doctrine: to enhance the value of state-owned enterprises, diversify funding sources, and anchor economic action within a Pan-African logic of mobilizing internal resources.
It paves the way for other state-owned companies and other structuring projects, within a dynamic where the market becomes a strategic ally of public policy.
With the SONABHY securitization, Burkina Faso has not simply raised funds. It has laid a milestone; that of a state that transforms its constraints into levers and charts its course toward the future through discipline, vision, and asserted sovereignty.
Fanta KOUROUMA
