Free healthcare services in Burkina Faso cost the state 28.547 billion FCFA in 2025, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
The figure covers eight categories of care provided under the country’s policy of removing user fees for certain services.
The largest single expense was care for children under five, which accounted for 6,276,261 services at a cost of 10,789,204,016 FCFA. Deliveries and obstetric interventions followed, with 1,205,091 cases covered at a cost of 9,286,601,859 FCFA.
Prenatal care represented 5,034,974 services at a cost of 6,655,996,788 FCFA. Family planning services totalled 1,549,093, with an estimated cost of 1,190,328,517 FCFA.
Free screening for cancerous lesions of the cervix involved 104,966 services, costing 281,684,261 FCFA.
The remaining categories were smaller in scale. ASBC care services cost 43,893,254 FCFA, SAMU care services totalled 1,849 interventions at 21,450,744 FCFA, and care for people living with HIV covered 117,390 services at a cost of 278,172,000 FCFA.
In total, the ministry recorded 14,637,303 services across all eight categories in 2025.
A breakdown of expenditure by type of goods and services shows that medicines made up half of the total amount, at 14,170,303,203 FCFA. Procedures were the second-largest item, costing 6,805,188,549 FCFA, or 24% of expenditure.
Additional examinations represented 18% of spending, at 5,247,544,102 FCFA. Hospitalization accounted for 7% of expenditure, or 1,911,434,002 FCFA, while fuel made up 1%, at 412,861,582 FCFA.
Source: Aujourd'hui au Faso