About GEN in Burkina Faso

GEN began working in Burkina Faso in 2009 when it partnered with APSIP (Association pour la Promotion le Soutien et le Suivi de l'Investissement Privé) to lead the country's first Global Entrepreneurship Week campaign. An immediate success, the campaign became an annual fixture, reaching new audiences each November and steadily building a national conversation around entrepreneurship. By 2015, the campaign had grown to 14 partner organizations hosting 17 activities for more than 4,500 participants — a sign of how quickly the idea had taken root among Burkinabè youth.

GEN and APSIP led the campaign through the first decade, building a national coalition in the process. To carry the work forward on a year-round basis, GEN established a local affiliate — GEN Burkina Faso — in 2021 led by Issa Traore, a business and management expert, and supported by Ghislaine Madjouma Sanou, Mamou Bagaya, and Massa Balima. GEN Burkina Faso and APSIP broadened the GEW campaign’s scope to include programs focused on self-reliance and economic growth through innovation. That year’s edition reconnected entrepreneurs as the country emerged from the global pandemic and cemented ministerial backing under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts and the Ministry of Youth, Entrepreneurship and Employment.

In 2022, the campaign carried a women's empowerment focus, including a capacity-building workshop in Zagtouli for women entrepreneurs working in the shea butter (karité) value chain. By 2025, GEW anchored the Journées de l'Entrepreneuriat Burkinabè (JEB) and featured a startup fair supported by the country’s leading investors. The fair included a large Startup EXPO where emerging founders exhibited their products and services alongside a series of GEW Innovation Workshops that trained 100 young Burkinabè in technology and business creation.

GEN connects Burkinabè founders to its flagship global programs. For example, Ouagadougou is home to a robust Startup Huddle chapter — GEN's program of monthly, peer-driven, mentor-supported meetups that help local founders refine strategy and build community. And through the Entrepreneurship World Cup, a global pitch competition GEN launched in 2019, founders receive training, mentorship, and exposure to investors as they compete for a share of $1 million in prizes. National finalists have included Maia-Africa, founded by Langevin Franck, and K-risme founded by Martial Wilfried Bado.

GEN Burkina Faso also runs year-round capacity-building and structured entrepreneur support programs. It aligns its startup-support work with international benchmarking through the International Trade Centre (ITC) Benchmarking for Trade network. It also delivers an “introduction to entrepreneurship” course for secondary school and university students and operates a business development program in which students found and run a micro enterprise.

Policy engagement has become a defining feature of GEN's work in Burkina Faso. In 2021, GEN supported PACAJeF, a project to build a more enabling business environment, convened by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts and the Minister of Youth, Entrepreneurship and Employment. Building on that foundation, GEN Burkina Faso — supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands — launched a multi-year program to inform the legislature's development of a new startup act. The program maps the ecosystem, convenes and surveys stakeholders, and analyzes the business environment before compiling an initial set of policy recommendations. Findings will be refined through a series of workshops with key stakeholders and presented during parliamentary hearings.

GEN maintains wide-ranging relationships with Burkinabè ecosystem leaders including the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts; the Ministry of Youth, Entrepreneurship and Employment; and local hubs such as the Burkina Business Incubator. Since GEN initiated GEW in Burkina Faso and brought the country’s entrepreneurship community into greater alignment, the ecosystem has developed rapidly — yielding successful programs spanning youth and women's empowerment, entrepreneurship education, and innovative development financing including crowdfunding and blockchain-based approaches. Going forward, GEN is working to strengthen the networks, programs, and policies that allow Burkinabè founders — including the country's young, fast-growing community of women entrepreneurs — to start and scale.