Koudougou

Not to be confused with Koundougou (department).

For the villages in Ivory Coast, see Koudougou, Ivory Coast.

Koudougou Kʋdgo (Mossi)
City
The Grand marché (Main Market) of Koudougou
Coat of arms
Koudougou Location within Burkina Faso, French West Africa
Coordinates: 12°15′N 2°22′W
Country	Burkina Faso
Region	Centre-Ouest Region
Province	Boulkiemdé Province
Department	Koudougou Department
Elevation	282 m (925 ft)
Population  (2019 census)
• Total	160,239
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
Area code	+226 50

Koudougou (Mossi: Kʋdgo) is a city in Burkina Faso's Boulkiemdé Province. It is located 75 kilometres (47 mi) west of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. With a population of 160,239 (2019), it is the third most populous city in Burkina Faso after Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, and is mainly inhabited by the Gurunsi and Mossi ethnic groups. Koudougou is situated on the only railway line in Burkina Faso and has some small industries, a market, a university and provincial government offices.

Geography

Location of Koudougou

Situated on the Mossi Plateau, the city is 75 kilometres (47 mi) west of Ouagadougou. In 1952 it was connected by rail to Ouagadougou and Abidjan. It is situated along the N13 road south of Sabou and north of Yako. The N21 road connects the city to Réo and the N14 connects it with Dédougou.

Although the city's administrative borders used to extend further, the city currently encompasses 15 surrounding villages.

Economy

Street in Koudougou

Ruins of the royal palace of the canton of Lalle

Koudougou's Market

The economy of the city is dominated by agriculture with annual GDP for the city amounting to around 17.5 billion CFA (apx. $36 million). The city has small industries such as a soap, shea butter, cotton and various textile factories. As of February 2007, the city had radio-television production and broadcasting installations for Tele-Yaka, a clothing recycling and manufacturing workshop, an experimental mango and green-leaf vegetable plantation, a metal forge for construction and maintenance of farming tools and implements, a metal waste-management and metal engineering workshop geared towards machine parts and motor components, an electronics repair shop and an open-air exhibition space for local sculptors.

Distribution of economic activities by gender

Type of Activity	Men	Women	Together
Agriculture	86,3%	89,7%	88,1%
Processing	1,1	3,7	2,5
Construction	1,2	0,0	0,6
Trade	2,7	3,1	3,0
Transportation and Telecommunications	0,4	0,1	0,2
Merchant Services	3,8	1,4	2,5
Other services	4,4	2,0	3,1

Transportation

Train station in Koudougou

The city has a railroad station along the Abidjan – Ouagadougou Railway. As of June 2014 Sitarail operated a passenger train along the line three times a week in each direction. Ouagadougou International Airport is approximately 141 km southeast of central Koudougou and as of June 2014 had regularly scheduled flights to most major cities in West Africa as well as Paris, Brussels and Istanbul.

Education

Since 2005 the city is home to the University of Koudougou (there were around 5,600 students enrolled in 2010/2011) and in 2012 a vocational school opened. Primary school enrollment in 2007-2008 was 79.2% and secondary school enrollment was 20.3%.

Sports

The city has a few soccer clubs including l'Association des Jeunes Sportifs de Koudougou (AJSK), l'AS des Employés de Commerce de Koudougou (ASEC-K), le Bouloumpoukou FC (BPFC), le Bouloumpoukou Stade (BPS), l'Association des jeunes footballeurs (AJF), and le Jeunesse Club Boulkiemdé. They all play at the Stade Balibiè.

See also

• List of cities in Burkina Faso
• Railway stations in Burkina Faso

Further reading

Hilgers, M., Une ethnographie à l'échelle de la ville. Histoire et reconnaissance à Koudougou, Karthala, Paris, 2009.

External links

• Koudougou travel guide from Wikivoyage