Mahamadou Bonkoungou: Burkinabè tycoon who built a billion-dollar business empire through EBOMAF

Mahamadou Bonkoungou, a Burkinabè entrepreneur who started his career in trading before moving into construction, has built EBOMAF into one of West Africa’s most diversified privately controlled business groups, with interests spanning infrastructure, banking, aviation, insurance, retail, healthcare, hospitality and fisheries.

Bonkoungou founded Entreprise Bonkoungou Mahamadou et Fils, now known as EBOMAF, in 1989 at the age of 23 after gaining experience trading goods across West Africa. What began as a small commercial enterprise in Burkina Faso gradually evolved into a major infrastructure contractor before expanding into a broader conglomerate with operations and investments across several African markets.

Today, Bonkoungou sits at the center of an ecosystem that includes IB Bank, IB Holding, Liz Aviation, Liza Transport International, Liza Mall, Clinique Princesse Sarah, ZindNaaba Appart Hôtel and IB Fish, alongside the group’s longstanding construction and infrastructure operations.

From trader to infrastructure entrepreneur

Bonkoungou, born on May 23, 1966, in Dédougou, Burkina Faso, into a commercially active family. His father, Mamoudou Bonkoungou, known as “Zind-naaba,” was a prominent merchant in the Dédougou area.

After completing his secondary education and obtaining a Baccalaureate D in 1988, Bonkoungou chose business rather than university. He initially traded music and video cassettes, generators, household appliances, electrical equipment and motorcycle spare parts, sourcing merchandise from regional commercial centres including Lomé, Monrovia and Lagos.

His early trading activities also included gold. According to Bonkoungou’s own account, he bought gold from artisanal miners around Kalsaka and transported it toward Cotonou, returning with merchandise for resale in Burkina Faso.

The experience gave him an understanding of regional trade routes, logistics and commodity markets that would later become useful as he expanded into transport and infrastructure. In September 1989, he formally established EBOMAF in Dédougou. The company initially focused on real estate, road maintenance and public works before gradually moving into larger infrastructure contracts.

EBOMAF’s rise from contractor to infrastructure group

EBOMAF’s early work included roads, schools, health centres and other basic infrastructure projects in Burkina Faso. Over time, the company expanded into major civil engineering and public infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, airports, administrative buildings and urban development.

The group has highlighted projects in Burkina Faso such as the Kosyam Presidential Palace and Residence, the ZACA urban development project, Place de la Nation and major road infrastructure.

By the 2000s and 2010s, EBOMAF had moved beyond its original domestic market, undertaking projects across several West African countries. The company subsequently developed interests outside construction, transforming EBOMAF from a conventional contractor into a diversified business group.

EBOMAF’s current corporate materials describe the group as operating across construction, transport and banking, while its wider ecosystem includes businesses in financial services, insurance, aviation, retail, healthcare, hospitality and fisheries.

Bonkoungou’s expansion into banking

One of the most significant steps in Bonkoungou’s diversification strategy was his entry into banking. In 2018, he took control of Banque de l’Habitat du Burkina Faso, which was subsequently renamed International Business Bank, or IB Bank Burkina Faso.

The move marked a strategic shift from an entrepreneur whose core business was infrastructure into financial services, giving the wider group exposure to banking, corporate finance, trade finance and other financial activities. Bonkoungou subsequently expanded the banking platform beyond Burkina Faso.

IB Bank Djibouti was established after regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Djibouti and officially opened in January 2021. The Central Bank of Djibouti currently lists International Business Bank Djibouti among the country’s licensed conventional banks.

The group’s banking expansion also reached Togo, where IB Holding acquired a 90% stake in Banque Togolaise pour le Commerce et l’Industrie, formerly a state-owned institution. The bank was subsequently renamed IB Bank Togo, while the Togolese state retained a 10% stake.

The acquisition gave Bonkoungou’s financial ecosystem control of a banking institution in another West African market and reinforced IB Holding’s role as a regional financial platform.

From business aviation to commercial airline operations

Bonkoungou’s transportation interests also evolved significantly. Liza Transport International, known as LTI, was developed as an aviation business offering private and business aircraft services. The operation expanded its fleet to include business jets, helicopters and other aircraft, giving the EBOMAF group a presence in the high-end aviation market.

The group later moved into scheduled commercial aviation through Liz Aviation. Liz Aviation launched commercial operations in 2023, initially connecting Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso before expanding its regional ambitions. The airline subsequently added ATR aircraft and began developing routes linking Burkina Faso and Togo, with ambitions for wider regional connectivity.

The aviation business has remained strategically important to Bonkoungou. In 2026, he attended the presentation of Dassault Aviation’s Falcon 10X in Bordeaux in his capacity as CEO of EBOMAF and Liza Transport International. His appearance at the event underscores the continuing importance of business aviation within the group’s transportation strategy, although attendance at the presentation does not by itself establish that the group purchased the aircraft.

Building a consumer and real estate platform

Bonkoungou’s diversification has also moved into consumer retail and real estate. The group developed Liza Market, with outlets including Liza Market Kwamé-Nkrumah and Liza Market Patte d’Oie in Ouagadougou.

The retail strategy expanded further with Liza Mall, a multi-level commercial centre in Koulouba, Ouagadougou, which opened in December 2022.

The project illustrates the growing role of Bonkoungou’s family in the wider business ecosystem. His daughter, Alizèta Kambou/Bonkoungou, has been closely associated with the project and holds senior responsibilities within the family business.

The expansion into retail complements EBOMAF’s longstanding exposure to real estate and construction, allowing the group to move from building commercial infrastructure to operating businesses within it.

Healthcare and hospitality broaden the group

Healthcare has become another emerging pillar of the Bonkoungou business ecosystem. EBOMAF created Clinique Princesse Sarah in Ouagadougou, a private healthcare facility offering medical, surgical, diagnostic and specialist services.

The facility has an unusual history. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the EBOMAF Foundation donated the facility to the Burkinabè government for use in treating patients before it was subsequently developed and opened as a permanent private healthcare institution.

Bonkoungou’s diversification has also extended into hospitality. ZindNaaba Appart Hôtel opened in Ouaga 2000 in April 2025 with 33 apartments. The business is headed by his daughter, Djamila Bonkoungou.

The ZindNaaba name is also a reference to Bonkoungou’s late father, Mamoudou Bonkoungou, whose nickname was Zind-naaba, giving the hospitality business a direct connection to the family’s commercial heritage.

Entering fisheries and industrial food processing

Bonkoungou’s newest diversification appears to be taking the group into fisheries and food processing.

Through International Business Fish, or IB Fish, the group has expanded into Senegal’s fishing industry, reportedly acquiring Africa Mer and planning investments in industrial fishing and seafood processing.

The reported Senegal project includes fishing, fish processing and other value-added activities, with investment estimates running into tens of billions of CFA francs.

The group’s fisheries ambitions have subsequently extended to Gabon, where IB Fish has been reported as developing interests in industrial tuna fishing and seafood processing.

The expansion represents another evolution in Bonkoungou’s strategy: moving beyond construction and services into sectors linked to food production, natural resources and industrial processing.

A family-controlled business ecosystem

Bonkoungou’s rise has also developed into a family enterprise.

In an earlier account of EBOMAF’s corporate structure, Bonkoungou said that he and his children, Alizèta and Aziz, were shareholders in the company.

His children have since appeared in senior roles across parts of the wider business ecosystem, including Alizèta Kambou/Bonkoungou at Liza Mall and Djamila Bonkoungou at ZindNaaba Appart Hôtel.

This suggests that the group’s expansion is not only about sectoral diversification but also about building a family-controlled corporate structure in which different members of the next generation oversee individual businesses.

From construction company to African conglomerate

Bonkoungou’s career reflects a progression from small-scale trading to infrastructure, followed by increasingly sophisticated diversification.

His journey can broadly be traced through five stages: trading, transport, construction, financial services and multi-sector expansion.

EBOMAF remains the foundation of the empire, but its surrounding ecosystem now extends far beyond construction.

The group has exposure to banking through IB Holding and IB Bank, aviation through Liza Transport International and Liz Aviation, retail through Liza Market and Liza Mall, healthcare through Clinique Princesse Sarah, hospitality through ZindNaaba, insurance through Jackson Assurances and fisheries through IB Fish.

The structure gives Bonkoungou exposure to multiple sources of revenue across different African economies rather than relying solely on infrastructure contracts.

Strategic positioning and outlook

Bonkoungou’s broader strategy appears centered on using EBOMAF’s infrastructure and capital base as a platform for building businesses across sectors that are fundamental to African economic growth.

Construction provides the group’s historical foundation, while banking creates financial-services exposure, aviation strengthens regional mobility, retail captures consumer spending, healthcare addresses private medical demand, hospitality targets business and leisure customers, and fisheries provide an entry point into food production and industrial processing.

The strategy also carries substantial execution requirements. Expanding simultaneously across infrastructure, banking, aviation, retail, healthcare and natural-resource businesses requires significant capital, regulatory oversight and management capacity.

Still, Bonkoungou’s trajectory stands out on the African business landscape. From a young trader in Dédougou who established EBOMAF in 1989, he has built a family-linked corporate ecosystem that increasingly resembles a diversified African conglomerate rather than a traditional construction company.

His next phase will likely be defined not by the size of EBOMAF’s construction contracts alone, but by whether the group’s newer businesses can achieve the scale, profitability and regional integration needed to turn Bonkoungou’s diversification strategy into a durable pan-African business empire.