Burkina Faso launches new “Caisse de dépôt et d’Investissement” to finance major projects

Burkina Faso is setting a new Caisse de dépôt et d’Investissement, CDI-BF, assigned several tasks including financing of State’s major projects.

The decision, “Sika Finance” reports, came during a cabinet meeting last week. The CDI-BF replaces Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC) created in 2017 and dismantled in 2022 for lack of results.

The CDI-BF will promote, manage, and protect popular savings by facilitating the creation or implementation of innovative alternative financial instruments that complement existing financial sector tools.

In addition, it will receive, acquire, conserve, and manage gold acquired by the State and its branches, as well as gold seized and confiscated on national territory, in a bid to build up the country’s gold reserves.

Also, as part of its assignments, the CDI-BF will serve as centers of expertise in financial engineering for the government and its agencies, to help mature the country’s major development projects, and to take equity stakes in mining companies and enterprises of strategic interest to the government.

The administration of transitional President Ibrahim Traore in December 2022 put an end to the existence of CDC tasked following its establishment in 2017 to collect and mobilize long-term financial resources, as well as finance structuring investment projects.