Data-center law in Burkina Faso

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-04

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Burkina Faso has no data-center-specific land-use, environmental-review, energy-grid, water-utilities, construction, or air-operations statute; a data center would be sited and permitted under the country's general regulatory apparatus rather than a dedicated regime.

The one dimension with a citable instrument is investment incentives: Loi n°038-2018/AN du 30 octobre 2018 portant Code des investissements au Burkina Faso establishes a special fiscal and customs regime (Titre V) for projects sited within a designated "pôle de croissance" (growth pole) or "zone économique spéciale" (special economic zone), defined as a delimited geographic area dedicated to one or more sectors of activity to promote exports.

A project inside such a zone is exempt, without regard to the ordinary investment-size and job-creation thresholds that gate the Code's general privileged regimes, from value-added tax and customs duties on imports needed strictly for the project, and from corporate income tax, the business license tax, the corporate property tax, the payroll and apprenticeship tax, and the tax on income from debt claims during the investment phase; in the operating phase it pays customs duties at a cumulative 7.3% on imports for ten years, is exempt from customs duties on exports, and is exempt from corporate income tax for seven years and then taxed at 15% from the eighth year to the fifteenth.

The Code's general privileged regimes (Régimes A through E) separately grant customs and tax exemptions to any qualifying new enterprise, scaled to investment size and employment created, without regard to sector.

Neither the special-zone regime nor the general regimes name data centers specifically, and the geographic delimitation of any growth pole or special economic zone is set by a decree of the Council of Ministers rather than by the Code itself, so whether a given site qualifies is a fact to confirm per project rather than a standing statutory list.

Instruments on record

1 instrument on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Public agreements

What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?

Loi n°038-2018/AN du 30 octobre 2018 portant Code des investissements au Burkina Faso, growth-pole and special-economic-zone regime

In force

Loi n°038-2018/AN du 30 octobre 2018 portant Code des investissements au Burkina Faso Titre V (régime spécial: pôles de croissance et zones économiques spéciales, Arts. 34 à 37)

Applies to both

Title V of Burkina Faso's Investment Code institutes a special fiscal and customs regime for enterprises investing inside a designated growth pole (pôle de croissance) or special economic zone (Article 34). The Code defines a special economic zone as a delimited geographic area dedicated to one or more sectors of activity to promote exports.

It defines a growth pole as a special economic zone sharing a sector of activity that refers to a driving activity with knock-on effects on subordinate units in the locality and in other areas. The Code defines an enterprise as any for-profit unit of production, processing or distribution of goods or services in the legal form of a legal person. Article 35 applies its advantages regardless of the investment-size, project-duration and job-creation conditions that otherwise apply.

During the investment phase, an enterprise investing on such a site is exempt from value-added tax, customs duties and other import levies on goods and services strictly needed for the project, apart from the statistical fee, the computer fee, the community levy and the community solidarity levy. During the same phase it is exempt from corporate income tax, the business license tax, the corporate property tax, the payroll and apprenticeship tax, and the tax on income from debt claims.

The investment phase runs from the signing of the investment agreement between the zone's management structure and the investor, and may not exceed 36 months for private promoters. A subcontracting company that works exclusively for such project holders is eligible for the first two of those exemptions, on imports and on acquisitions of goods, services and works.

The zone's management structure is permanently exempt on structuring investments, notably the development of production basins and transport, energy-supply, storage, processing and marketing infrastructure. In the operating phase, imported goods and services pay customs duties and taxes at a cumulative rate of 7.3% for ten years. Exports of goods and services produced or processed in the project are fully exempt from customs duties and taxes, except the computer fee.

Corporate income tax is waived for the first seven years of the operating phase and charged at 15% of taxable profit from the eighth year to the fifteenth. The conditions and procedures for applying the regime are set by regulation (Article 36). The geographic delimitation of growth poles and special economic zones is specified by decree of the Council of Ministers (Article 37). The Assemblée nationale deliberated and adopted Loi n°038-2018/AN in its sitting of 30 October 2018.

A decree of the President of Faso promulgates the law. The promulgation decree is dated Ouagadougou, 3 December 2018. The promulgation decree orders its own publication in the Journal Officiel du Faso. The law closes with Article 46, which provides that it will be executed as a law of the State, and no article of the law fixes a day of entry into force.

Source: Full text of law