102 Companies in Burkina Subsidized by the State to the Tune of 400 Million FCFA

The State of Burkina Faso, through the Fonds d’appui à la presse privée (FAPP) (Private Press Support Fund), made a symbolic presentation of cheques to private press companies on the evening of Thursday, July 27th, 2023 in Ouagadougou. The ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Communication, Culture, Arts, and Tourism, Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo.

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Which companies in Burkina received money from the Government

400 million CFA francs have been disbursed this year by the Burkinabe state to ensure that private press companies and professional media organization projects enjoy conditions conducive to their public service mission of information, awareness-raising, and communication.

“Despite the current security crisis in our country, a context in which scarce resources are being channeled into the peace effort, the transitional government has maintained its commitment to granting the subsidy to the private press in order to support their viability in Burkina Faso. This is proof of the great importance we attach to the work of the media,” said Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo, Minister in charge of communication.

For this year, 125 company applications and two budgeted activity programs from beneficiary structures – the Observatoire burkinabè des médias (OBM) and the Association des éditeurs de journaux et de presse en langue nationale (AEJPLN) – were received between March 20th and April 18th, 2023. After analyzing the applications, the committee responsible for distributing the annual state subsidy to the private press selected 102.

The 400 million CFA francs were distributed by first making compulsory deductions for structures such as OBM and AEJPLN, each of which received eight million CFA francs. The subsidy distribution commission pocketed four million CFA francs for its operations. After deduction of these compulsory levies, the 380 million CFA francs were distributed as follows: private press companies, 244,726,789 CFA francs; print media, 56,051,212 CFA francs; online media, 79,221,999 CFA francs.

Special mention was made of regional media which, despite adversity, are fighting to provide plural, quality information. They received at least an equal share of 1,900,000 CFA francs.

To help beneficiaries who have difficulty justifying the subsidy received, understanding what is eligible and what is not, registering service contracts with their suppliers with the tax authorities, etc., a training session on respecting the orthodoxy of public procurement preceded this symbolic cheque presentation ceremony. All beneficiaries were invited to justify the subsidy received.

This message obviously did not fall on deaf ears, as Séraphin Hien, representative of Diébougou’s Unitas radio station, promised to enforce the provisions taught to them during the training. Beyond that, he was delighted to receive the cheque for over three million CFA francs on behalf of the radio station. “The radio station is very happy. We received over 3,621,788 CFA francs. This will be used to meet the small needs of the company,” he said.

The ceremony was an opportunity for the FAPP to launch a call for projects to finance viable and promising projects for private press companies. “We intend to place particular emphasis on individual structuring projects, but also on projects of collective interest. We, therefore, encourage the media to join forces and, with the support of the FAPP, set up collective projects with strong economic potential,” said Managing Director Mohamed Ag Ibrahim.

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(Featured image by viarami via Pixabay)

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First published in lefaso.net, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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