Since Captain Ibrahim Traoré assumed power, Burkina Faso has undergone a profound transformation marked by heightened centralisation of governance. While official rhetoric advocates sovereignty and strategic reorganisation, the socio-economic reality on the ground tells a different story. Behind the discourse of rupture, the Burkinabe people—particularly the commercial sector—are sinking into silent distress, trapped in a spiral of restrictions where consultation has given way to unilateral decree.
The latest example of this vertical governance is the standoff that has, for several months, pitted the Ministry of Trade against motorcycle vendors. New measures enacted by authorities to drastically regulate the sale, pricing, and use of two-wheelers have dealt a heavy blow to an already weakened sector.
A vital sector held hostage
In Burkina Faso, the motorcycle is not a luxury but the backbone of urban and rural mobility, and the livelihood of thousands of families. By targeting price regulation and restricting sales conditions and the circulation of certain vehicles, the military regime strikes at a key sector.
On the markets of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, discontent is palpable, though muted. Traders describe a complete breakdown in social dialogue:
“Previously, there were negotiation frameworks. Today, orders come from above and must be carried out without a murmur. If you object, you are labelled unpatriotic,” confides a major importer on condition of anonymity.
The spiral of silence and verticality
Since Captain Traoré took power, economic actors describe a climate where a single will is imposed on the nation. This excessive centralisation creates chronic unpredictability for business. Economic operators find themselves trapped: on one side, rising import costs and global market realities; on the other, strict state directives setting selling prices below the profitability threshold.
The result of this authoritarian policy is immediate:
- Financial asphyxiation: Small resellers, unable to meet imposed margins, risk bankruptcy.
- Artificial shortages: Faced with price freezes, some importers prefer to suspend orders, threatening to choke supply.
- Legal insecurity: New circulation restrictions, officially for security reasons, paralyse goods transport in several localities.
The heart cry of a struggling economy
The suffering of the Burkinabe people—and specifically its merchant class—is now experienced in subdued tones. In a strict military transition context, fear of reprisals stifles public expression of grievances. Yet economic reality persists: prosperity cannot be decreed by simple orders.
By attempting to control everything from the supply chain to citizens’ daily usage, the transitional power risks breaking the fragile economic balance that keeps the country afloat. For two-wheeler traders, the bitter conclusion is that the much-touted economic sovereignty increasingly resembles suffocating dirigisme.
