Burkina Faso Asserts Digital Sovereignty with Launch of National Mini Data Centres
The new data centres form part of Burkina Faso’s 12 flagship digital transformation projects, with particular emphasis on the “zero external data” initiative, which seeks to ensure that sensitive national data is hosted and managed entirely within Burkinabe territory.
Burkina Faso is taking a major step toward digital sovereignty with the inauguration of two new mini data centres dedicated to public administration. On Friday, January 23, 2026, His Excellency Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo will officially commission the facilities, positioning them as strategic national infrastructure designed to serve both the state and citizens.
The new data centres form part of Burkina Faso’s 12 flagship digital transformation projects, with particular emphasis on the “zero external data” initiative, which seeks to ensure that sensitive national data is hosted and managed entirely within Burkinabe territory. This move reflects the government’s broader ambition to secure data, strengthen resilience, and reduce reliance on foreign hosting services.
From a technical standpoint, the infrastructure represents a significant upgrade. The facilities offer a combined storage capacity of around 3,000 terabytes, marking a tenfold increase compared to existing systems. More than 7,000 virtual machines can be supported, allowing each ministry to host between 100 and 300 virtual servers for the deployment of digital platforms. With this expansion, Burkina Faso now ranks among the top three countries in the sub-region in terms of digital data storage capacity.
The project is also positioned as a strategic and cost-effective investment. Developed at an estimated cost of 16 billion FCFA, the data centres are expected to generate savings of approximately 30 billion FCFA over five years, largely by reducing expenses linked to hosting government platforms abroad. Importantly, the facilities will be operated by national technical teams, reinforcing local expertise and building long-term capacity in the country’s digital ecosystem.
Looking ahead, the inauguration of these mini data centres is described as an intermediate milestone toward the construction of a national Big Data Centre. This future facility aims to fully repatriate digital data from both the public administration and the private sector that is currently hosted outside Burkina Faso, further consolidating the country’s vision of secure, sovereign, and sustainable digital infrastructure.
