Burkina Faso / 8th edition of the genius TIC competition: President Ibrahim Traoré puts technology at the service of public administration

On Tuesday 3 October 2023, Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Digital Transition, Posts and Electronic Communications officially launched the 8th edition of the competition for young talent in information and communication technology (ICT), known as «genius TIC» The event, which aims to stimulate creativity and promote the dematerialisation of administrative procedures, was inaugurated in Ouagadougou.

Ferdinand Yougbaré, Director General of Digital Transition, explained that the main aim of this year’s event is to contribute to the dematerialisation of five specific administrative procedures. Once dematerialised, these procedures will focus on crucial areas such as road traffic accident management, electronic voting in the transitional legislative assembly, monitoring of national livestock, the 3D visit to the Laongo site, and energy rationalisation in administrative buildings.

The aim of the competition is to identify and reward participants who have demonstrated concrete results in terms of efficiency, productivity and user satisfaction with the procedures put to the test. It also aims to encourage the emergence of endogenous technological solutions, thereby fostering creativity and innovation.

Participation is open to any natural person of Burkina Faso nationality residing in Burkina Faso or abroad. Foreign candidates residing in Burkina Faso, aged forty or less on 31 December 2023, are also eligible. Entries must be submitted by groups of two to four people, with at least one woman in each team. The winners of the 8th edition will receive official prizes of 3.000.000 FCFA each.

In addition, incentive prizes of FCFA 500.000 will be awarded to any non-winning finalists in each procedure. Entries will be made exclusively online, underlining the importance of the digital transition in the competition process itself.

This dynamic initiative reflects Burkina Faso’s ongoing commitment, under the leadership of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, to investing in innovation and harnessing the benefits of information and communication technology to modernise public administration. The genius TIC competition thus plays a key role in encouraging the younger generation to actively contribute to technological progress and meet the administrative challenges of the 21st century.

Justine