Burkina Faso’s Finance Minister Says “We Haven’t Done Anything Yet – We’re Going to Surprise the World”
In Ouagadougou this month, Finance Minister Aboubakar Nacanabo dropped a line that’s now spreading fast: “Be reassured, we haven’t done anything yet. Burkina Faso is going to surprise the world, and it won’t be long.”
He was speaking during a public “Dialogue with the People” session tied to the ongoing patriotic engagement days. People had been asking about the 1% cut taken from salaries for the Patriotic Support Fund.
Nacanabo pointed out that for most workers it’s small money (a couple thousand CFA francs on a typical salary), but added that the levy has already brought in 29 billion CFA francs since January. His message was basically: keep going, because the big results are still ahead.
The numbers he’s been sharing paint a picture of a sharp turnaround since 2022. Growth has moved from 1.8% to 5.3% last year, with 6% expected this year. Inflation went from over 14% to negative. The budget deficit fell from 11% of GDP to 1.4%.
State revenues jumped from about 2,500 billion CFA francs to more than 3,300 billion, and the Patriotic Support Fund itself has pulled in roughly 750 billion since 2023. On the agriculture side, the country says it hit 7 million tonnes of cereals enough to cover its own needs.
The government is tying all of this to its Plan Relance (2026–2030), a massive 36-trillion-CFA program meant to be funded mostly with local money and focused on infrastructure, industry, energy, and food production.
The clip came from BF1 TV and has been circulating widely, especially among people following the AES countries. Whether the “we haven’t done anything yet” line is confidence or just good messaging, it’s clearly landing.