Bobo Dioulasso is hosting the 4th National Forum on Local Content (Forum national sur le contenu local – FONACOL) on the theme of “Local content in a context of security crisis: challenges and prospects”. Scheduled to take place from 13 to 15 November 2023, the event is being organised by Burkina Networking in conjunction with the Ministry of Mines. It is sponsored by the Burkina Chamber of Mines (Chambre des mines du Burkina – CMB). The opening ceremony took place on Monday 13 November 2023.
The aim of this year’s FONACOL is to enable all those involved in the mining sector to share experiences and reflect on the challenges facing the local supply of mining goods and services in the Greater West Region.
The ceremony was held under the patronage of the Minister of Energy, Mines and Quarries, Simon-Pierre Boussim. His speech was read by the High Commissioner for Houet, Laurent Koutoukou Kontogom. In his speech, he pointed out that Burkina Faso’s mining sector is booming, and represents a major lever for the country’s socio-economic development. With almost 2/3 of the value added in the secondary sector in 2019, the extractive industries accounted for 63.3% of this sector, compared with 20.6% for manufacturing and 11.4% for construction and public works. In 2022, it contributed 594.984 billion FCFA to the State budget.
However, Priscille Zongo, Executive Director of the CMB, deplores the fact that despite the efforts made by mining companies to integrate local businesses into their supply chain, the impact of this sector on other sectors of activity leaves much to be desired. That’s why, she continues, the CMB doesn’t hesitate to support initiatives that enable all players to reflect on the challenges facing the sector, hence its sponsorship of this year’s FONACOL.
The meeting will be attended by players from the sector, including mining companies, local suppliers, the public administration, students and technical and financial partners.
According to Abdoul Aziz Sy, head of Burkina Networking, the 72-hour event will see participants discuss panels on promoting local procurement in the mining sector in the context of the security crisis. There will also be capacity-building sessions for local players, particularly on the procedures and requirements of the mining industry in terms of local procurement, and on best practice and procedures for awarding contracts to mining companies. This year’s innovation is to boost the employability of young people through open days for young students in the mining sector. There will also be visits to stands, B2B meetings, a tour of a local company and a visit to a mining site.
According to Yves Zongo, President of the Burkina Faso Alliance of Mining Goods and Services Suppliers (Alliance burkinabè des fournisseurs des biens et services miniers – ABSM), his organisation is working on organising suppliers into 15 sub-sectors in order to meet the demands of mining companies. According to Mr Zongo, local companies face a number of challenges in supplying mines locally, including the demands of orders and the security situation, which makes access to mining sites difficult. After welcoming the forum, he believes that it will enable solutions to be found to these challenges for the development of the sector.
In conclusion, the Minister of Mines reassured the audience that the conclusions of the meeting would not be shelved. “I can assure you that the results of these discussions will be given special attention by my technical departments, which are committed to implementing the activities set out in the national strategy for local content in the mining sector,” he said.
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