An assessment of the investment climate in Burkina Faso completed in 2005- 2006 by the World Bank concluded that the country’s business climate was the least favourable of all African countries. Within the same year, the Bank and International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Doing Business Report, a report that ranks 181 countries in the ease of doing business, ranked the country 154 th of 155 countries surveyed.

The situation led Burkina Faso’s government to seek technical assistance from the IFC to improve its business environment. As a result, the Doing Business Better in Burkina Faso programme was launched in March 2006 and has strongly contributed to the improvement of the country’s business performance.

Today, Burkina is making strides. The 2009 Doing Business report, launched in September 2008, ranks the country 148th out of 181 countries, and puts it in 6 th place among the world’s top ten reformers.

At the Report’s launch ceremony in September, Commerce Minister Mamadou Sanou expressed the Government’s satisfaction with the outcomes achieved by Burkina. He recalled that this landlocked country in West Africa with 13 million inhabitants, once ranked among the worst performers, is now in the coveted circle of the best reformers.

The country has made a leap forward in many areas including the four recognised by the report:

• The creation of a one-stop shop centralising all the formalities for the issuance of building permits (CEFAC): the number of procedures has been cut from 32 to 15, the deadlines have been reduced from 226 to 214 days and the cost has declined;

• Regulation of the labour market: a new labour code was adopted making hiring and dismissing rules more flexible;

• Transfer of property: new measures have made it possible to reduce the number of procedures from eight to six, the duration from 182 to 136 days and the cost from 12.2 percent to 10 percent of the property value; and

• Tax payment: a reform of the tax law has reduced the overall tax rate by 4.3 percent.

Business owner Alain Roger Coefe, at the launch event, expressed hope that the reforms made by Burkina Faso trickle down to the private sector.

“Impact is what matters most,” he said. “Reducing taxes is important for the business environment.”

Burkina Faso , in agreement with its financial and technical partners, including the Doing Business Better in Burkina Faso programme, is involved in major reforms including reform of the tax code. The objective is to ensure a sustainable business climate that is favourable to the development of the private sector. Development of a private sector, according to government officials, assures poverty reduction by creating jobs, generating income and facilitating foreign investment.

[World Bank]