Dr. Joachim Tankoano traces over 50 years of digital transformation in Burkina Faso, from mainframes to AI
Dr. Joachim Tankoano, former Minister of Posts and Information and Communication Technologies, delivered a keynote address at the Grand Hommage du numérique au Burkina Faso GHN-BF on July 17, 2026, in Ouagadougou. His presentation, titled "Burkina Faso's Digital Transition from the 1970s to Today," chronicled the country's rapid digital evolution, from room-sized computers to smartphones and from kilobits to hundreds of gigabits of international capacity. Dr. Tankoano highlighted three major phases of this transition. The first, from the 1970s to 1980s, saw the establishment of the National Information Processing Center CENATRIN and the use of mainframes, centralizing computing resources for public administration and businesses. The second phase, in the 1990s, marked the shift to personal computers, local networks, and the groundwork for internet infrastructure, leading to the creation of the Superior Council for Informatics of Faso and the General Delegation for Informatics DELGI, along with increased training and the emergence of 128 IT service companies by 2003. The third phase, from the 2000s onward, is characterized by hyperconnectivity, with fiber optics, 3G/4G mobile networks, smartphones, and cloud computing. This period saw the national fiber optic backbone reach 11,291.5 kilometers by December 31, 2024, and mobile subscriptions surge from 220,000 in 2003 to over 27.5 million in 2024. The digital transformation has also impacted public administration, with 2,805 publ
