OUAGADOUGOU, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Burkina Faso's total domestic debt stood at 212 billion CFA Francs (about 360 million U.S. dollars) by Dec. 31, 2015, an official source said Wednesday evening.
In a statement released in Ouagadougou after a cabinet meeting, the government said the figures were arrived at following an audit carried out by the auditor general and the anti-corruption authority.
According to the audit, 75 billion CFA Francs of debt was held by various ministries and institutions whereas 137 billion were debts owed to the state by state owned companies.
To address the matter, the government has asked concerned ministries to take ideal measures to clear the internal debts as well as debts owed to the state by state owned companies.
This West African nation that got independence in 1960 has a population of about 18 million people, with half of them living on less than 1 U.S. dollar per day.
After the 2014 political crisis that saw ex-president Blaise Compaore deposed from power, followed by a transition period between 2014-2015, the country managed to organize presidential elections that were won by Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
On June 20, while launching the National Economic and Development Plan, Burkinabe Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba announced that 10 percent of Burkinabes hold 30 percent of national wealth, and that the country needed 12,000 billion CFA Francs to revive the economy.
