The 2009 Economic and Product Market Databook for Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

In performing various economic analyses for its clients, I have occasionally been asked to investigate the market potential for various products and services in Burkina Faso. The purpose of this study is to understand the density of demand within Burkina Faso and the extent to which Ouagadougou might be used as a point of distribution within Africa. From an economic perspective, however, Ouagadougou does not represent a population within rigid geographical boundaries, rather, it represents an area of dominant influence over markets in adjacent areas. This influence varies from one industry to another, but also from one period of time to another.

In what follows, I summarize the economic potential for Ouagadougou over the next five years for hundreds of industries, categories and products. The goal of this report is to report the real economic potential, or what an economist calls the latent demand, represented by Ouagadougou when defined as an area of dominant influence. The reader needs to realize that latent demand may or may not represent real sales. For many items, latent demand is clearly observable in sales, as in the case for food or housing items. Consider, however, the category "satellite launch vehicles". Clearly, there are no launch pads in Ouagadougou used by the space industry to launch satellites. However, the core benefit of the vehicles (e.g. telecommunications, etc.) is "consumed" by the area served by Ouagadougou. Without Ouagadougou, in other words, the market for satellite launch vehicles would be lower for the population in Burkina Faso, Africa, or the world in general. One needs to allocate, therefore, a portion of the worldwide economic demand for launch vehicles to both Africa and Ouagadougou.