A memorandum of understanding was signed on Friday, October 13, 2023 in Moscow between the Burkinabe Minister of Energy, Simon-Pierre Boussim, and the Deputy CEO of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency Rosatom, Nikolay Spasski as part of the Russian L&rsquo Week ; energy. Both partners want to build a nuclear power plant in Burkina Faso.

The Russian Atomic Energy Agency Rosatom indicated that the memorandum signed last Friday “is the first document in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy between Russia and Burkina Faso. It creates a basis for cooperation in a wide range of areas, including approaches to the creation of nuclear production, the non-energetic application of nuclear energy in industry, agriculture and medicine, the development of Burkina's nuclear infrastructure, and public awareness of nuclear technologies.”

The first objective of this agreement is to “cover the energy needs of populations”, in a country where the overall rate of access to electric current was 22.5% (67.4% in urban areas and 5.3% in rural areas) at the end of 2020, according to information from the ADB.