A delegation from Russian nuclear giant Rosatom began a four-day stay Tuesday to Burkina Faso to discuss the construction of a power plant which could ramp up electrification in the western African state.
The two countries’s governments have forged close relations since a military regime headed by Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in a September 2022 coup, and in October last year they signed an agreement for construction of a nuclear power plant. 
“The Rosatom delegation came to discuss technical aspects to lay down all necessary prerequisites to implement and begin construction of this plant,” said Burkinabe Minister of Energy Yacouba Zabré Gouba.
“We are pinning much hope on this visit which will allow us to get to grips with energy realities,” said Gouba.
“We will do everything possible to carry out the installation of the nuclear power plant as quickly as possible,” said Rosatom chief engineer Alexander Renev, though he gave no date.
The location of the facility will “take into account security” issues in a country racked by jihadist violence, said Renev, whose visit runs to Friday.
At the end of 2020, only 22.5 percent of Burkina residents 67 percent in urban areas and just 5.3 percent in rural areas — had access to electricity, according to figures from the African Development Bank.
“We want to solve once and for all and on a long term basis the energy deficit that Burkina Faso is experiencing through the nuclear solution,” said Gouba.
The country of some 23 million imports much of its electricity from neighboring Ivory Coast and Ghana, while producing some locally, mainly through hydroelectric or solar power.
To date the African continent has just one nuclear plant, at Koeberg, near Cape Town in South Africa.
