Debt Collection Agency in Burkina Faso - No Win, No Fee

Step 1 - How does amicable (pre-legal) debt collection work in Burkina Faso?

Amicable collection in Burkina Faso means direct contact and negotiation with the debtor, aimed at full payment or a written instalment agreement, before any court filing. A creditor holding a créance certaine, liquide et exigible (a certain, quantifiable and due debt) of contractual origin, or one arising from a dishonoured bill of exchange or cheque, can move straight to the injonction de payer (order for payment) procedure once amicable contact fails (Acte Uniforme portant organisation des Procédures Simplifiées de Recouvrement et des Voies d'Exécution (AUPSRVE), art. 2) - Burkina Faso's fast, paper-based route into an enforceable title.

A formal demand (mise en demeure) matters even before any court step: under the Acte Uniforme portant sur le Droit Commercial Général (AUDCG), arts. 22-23, a debtor's written or conduct-based acknowledgment of the debt interrupts the 5-year prescription period and restarts it at full length. Agreeing to mediation or conciliation also suspends the prescription clock for the duration of the process, with at least a 6-month extension once it ends (art. 21) - so a genuine amicable attempt does not cost the creditor limitation time. In practice this phase typically layers informal reminders, then a formal payment demand, each preserving negotiating room without starting court proceedings.

Escalation to the injonction de payer route is worth considering once the debtor stops responding, repeatedly breaks a payment arrangement, or disputes the debt outright - it is an approved next step, never an automatic one.

Step 2 - How do you obtain an enforceable title in Burkina Faso?

Most straightforward Burkina Faso debts reach an enforceable title through the injonction de payer (order for payment) procedure rather than a full trial. The request is filed at the clerk's office (greffe) of the competent court for the debtor's domicile (or, with multiple debtors, any one of them), stating the parties' identities and the precise amount claimed with supporting documents (Acte Uniforme portant organisation des Procédures Simplifiées de Recouvrement et des Voies d'Exécution (AUPSRVE), arts. 3-4). The court's president (or a delegated judge) issues the order within 3 days if the claim appears well-founded on the documents produced (art. 5); a refusal is reasoned and non-appealable, though the creditor may still sue under ordinary procedure.

The order must be served on the debtor by extrajudicial act within 3 months of its date, or it lapses (art. 7). Service must summon the debtor to pay, or lodge an opposition, within 10 days (art. 8); the debtor's silence within that window lets the creditor obtain the executory formula directly from the clerk's office, making the order an enforceable title without a full trial (art. 27).

Which court hears the claim depends on its value and nature (Loi n°015-2019/AN portant organisation judiciaire, arts. 39/71/93): the Tribunal Départemental ou d'Arrondissement (District Court) for claims up to 300,000 CFA francs, the Tribunal de Commerce (Commercial Court) for larger commercial disputes, or the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI, High Court) for other civil claims above that threshold.

More on court proceedings in Burkina Faso

If the debtor opposes

Opposition must be lodged within 10 days of service (extended by distance delays), or, if the debtor was not personally served, until 10 days after the first act served on the debtor personally, or the first enforcement measure freezing their assets (AUPSRVE, arts. 9-10). The opposing debtor must, in the same act, serve all parties, the enforcement officer and the clerk's office, and summon the creditor to appear within 30 days (art. 11). The court then appoints a judge who must attempt conciliation within 15 days of appointment (art. 12); a resulting conciliation minute replaces the original order and is given the executory formula.

Court costs

Enforcement and court costs follow the ordinary "loser pays" principle, but no Burkina Faso-specific court-filing-fee or huissier de justice (bailiff) tariff schedule was found for this guide; budget for costs case by case rather than assuming a fixed figure. Once an executory title is confirmed, either through an unopposed injonction de payer or a court judgment, the same title supports every enforcement measure described in Step 3 below, without any further hearing on the merits of the debt itself.

Step 3 - How does debt enforcement work in Burkina Faso?

Once a creditor holds an enforceable title (a court judgment, or an unopposed injonction de payer order carrying the executory formula), Burkina Faso's OHADA-derived enforcement rules offer several instruments (Acte Uniforme portant organisation des Procédures Simplifiées de Recouvrement et des Voies d'Exécution (AUPSRVE)):

The Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI)'s dedicated juge de l'exécution (enforcement judge) has exclusive first-instance jurisdiction over enforcement disputes, damages claims for wrongful (non-)execution, and authorising conservatory measures (Loi n°015-2019/AN portant organisation judiciaire, arts. 61-62); the enforcement judge may also refer a case to a full TGI panel sitting as enforcement judge, and appeals go to the Cour d'Appel's first president (art. 29). This concentrates enforcement disputes across saisie-attribution, saisie-vente and saisie immobilière alike before a single specialised judge, rather than scattering them across ordinary courts. Serving a seizure notice, even a merely conservatory one, interrupts the running of prescription (AUPSRVE, art. 37).

A saisie conservatoire (precautionary seizure) freezes assets before a creditor holds an enforceable title, protecting against dissipation while the injonction de payer or ordinary proceedings run their course; once the title is obtained, the creditor converts it into a saisie-attribution, saisie-vente or saisie immobilière rather than starting a fresh seizure from scratch.

Burkina Faso's own general civil-law limitation period for enforcing an already-obtained judgment or executory title was not independently verified for this guide; the AUPSRVE leaves that period to national law rather than fixing its own number, so treat enforcement timing case by case rather than assuming a fixed figure.

Cross-border debt collection in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso's debt-recovery framework is not unique to the country: as an OHADA (Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires) member state, the same Acte Uniforme portant organisation des Procédures Simplifiées de Recouvrement et des Voies d'Exécution (AUPSRVE), Acte Uniforme portant sur le Droit Commercial Général (AUDCG) and Acte Uniforme portant organisation des Procédures Collectives d'Apurement du Passif (AUPC) texts apply, word for word, across all 17 OHADA member states (Traité OHADA, art. 10) - including Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali and Togo - and override any conflicting national law, prior or subsequent. A creditor already familiar with the injonction de payer (order for payment) procedure in another OHADA state is using the same statute in Burkina Faso.

Enforcing a foreign judgment from outside the OHADA zone in Burkina Faso was not independently verified for this guide; once a Burkina Faso court makes such a judgment enforceable, the same AUPSRVE enforcement instruments (saisie-attribution, saisie-vente and the rest) apply to it.