The Burkina Faso privatisation ban on strategic state-owned enterprises is now law. The country’s transitional legislature adopted the measure, which prohibits the full or partial sale of enterprises classed as strategic and gives the government wider powers to take or raise stakes in private companies vital to national interests.
The Assemblée législative du peuple passed the law in Ouagadougou on Monday, October 19. The law replaces Law No. 53/93/ADP of December 20, 1993, which defined the country’s strategic enterprises. Industry, Trade and Crafts Minister Serge Gnaniodem Poda presented the bill, titled a law defining and determining strategic economic, commercial and industrial entities.
The government will use five criteria to decide whether an enterprise counts as strategic. They cover national sovereignty, economic and social impact, national security, monopoly status and public-service obligations. Any enterprise that holds a monopoly in Burkina Faso qualifies automatically. For enterprises that meet the test, the law prohibits both total and partial privatisation. It also lets the state acquire shares in private companies in strategic areas, or increase its existing holdings.
Other provisions require prior approval from the Council of Ministers for certain decisions at strategic entities, let the state reserve some strategic activities for Burkinabè nationals under rules it has yet to set, and shield the assets and accounts of covered entities from seizure.
However, the law does not name the companies it covers. The Council of Ministers will fix the list by decree and can update it as circumstances change. The government has not yet published that decree. Poda told lawmakers that the 1993 law did not stop the sale or closure of several strategic companies between 1992 and 2000. He said the new law does not aim to retake every firm privatised in earlier decades, but to protect the entities it now deems strategic.
The law follows a series of moves by the government of Captain Ibrahim Traoré to expand public control over key assets. In November 2025, the government returned oil processor SN-CITEC and sugar producer SN-SOSUCO to state control.
In April 2026, the Council of Ministers approved the full nationalisation of cotton company SOFITEX, a business worth 338.14 billion CFA francs, about $607 million. The same month, the government told Australia’s West African Resources that it intends to raise the state’s stake in the Kiaka gold mine to 40%. A state-owned gold refinery opened in September.
Authorities in Burkina Faso present these steps as part of a policy of economic and industrial sovereignty. The decree listing strategic enterprises and the regulations on activities reserved for nationals will now determine how far the new law reaches in practice.
