Burkina Faso MPs To Return Touch-Screen Tablet Gifts Back To Huawei Technologies

The speaker of the parliament in Burkina Faso says controversial touchscreen tablets given to MPs by a Chinese company will be returned.

All 127 members of the National Assembly were each given a tablet from Huawei Technologies in November.

The total cost of the gadgets was estimated to be around 100,000 euros ($107,300, £84,400).

But this caused a row because a law adopted in the wake of the 2014 popular uprising against former President Blaise Compaore banned public servants from accepting any gifts more than $56.


The anti-corruption movement RenLac led the protest by arguing in a public statement that the lawmakers had broken the law.

The MPs had been given the tablets after Huawei Technologies was awarded a contract for the construction of a fibre optical cable from Ghana to Burkina Faso.