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Burkina Faso president concerned over country's financial status

Xinhua, April 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore has expressed concern over the country's financial status, and also urged the finance ministry to review revenue collection methods.

"The public treasury has continuously faced difficulties," Kabore said over the weekend when he was in the country's second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso, during presentation of his scorecard after serving the first 100 days.

The country is constantly facing a shortage of funds and that is why we have urged the finance ministry to review revenue collection methods so that we can improve our internal funds, he said.

"We should work towards achieving self-sufficiency and better performance in terms of investment and reinforcement of key structures that will enable us to develop our economy both in the short term and long term," said the president.

"We should depend on ourselves before expecting others to help us," he added.

Kabore was elected in the first round of presidential elections held on Nov. 29, 2015 with 53.63 percent of the votes cast.

The elections brought to an end a 13-month political transition that began after a popular uprising that ended the reign of Blaise Compaore in October 2014.

Last week, Kabore and his prime minister decided to cap their communication allowance to 400,000 CFA Francs (about 700 U.S. dollars) per month to reduce government wage bill.

The measure, the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, also targeted certain ministers such as those in charge of defense, security and foreign affairs.

Heads of public institutions and other personalities at the rank of ministers will also have their communication allowance limited to 200,000 CFA Francs.

The government has also outlined measures to reduce expenses on water, electricity and telephone service in public offices. Enditem