“There is a need, a very acute need, for the economy to get transformed and to get diversified in order to cushion against this vulnerability,” said Galina Sotirova, country representative for the World Bank.
Livestock and associated products already account for 10 percent of the country’s GDP and are the second largest source of export income after cotton, accounting for 25 percent of the country’s total exports.
“The skins industry profits the nation greatly — the state just as much as the population,” said Smalya Traore, a factory employee sorting through incoming skins in the open air before sending them into the factory for treatment.
The Indian workers are happy to be here, too.
“My boss is taking care of us Indians here. He has given everything to us, more than what we expect,” said Kamal, explaining that, while Indian employers yell a lot, his Burkinan boss has never raised his voice.
Kamal and his two Indian co-workers, part of a 150-strong Indian community, cook curry at home and regularly see Bollywood movies in cinema-loving Ouagadougou, which hosts Africa’s biannual FESPACO film festival.
“In another country we are watching our Indian films, so it boosts us,” said Kamal, whose wife has just given birth thousands of kilometers away and who sent pictures of his baby via the Internet. “It feels just like we are in India.”
RSS