The verdict in three sentences
With 3.5 to 4 hours a week for four weeks, you cover the 14 hours of Kolonell Academy's Excel course, projects included, without leaving Ouagadougou or your job. The plan follows the real order of the six modules: clean tables and formulas, then logical functions and XLOOKUP, then sorting, filters and pivot tables, and finally ready-to-use management tools. The price is 75,000 FCFA (about 115 EUR / 125 USD) paid once, with lifetime access and module 1 free to read before you pay.
Who this plan is for in Ouagadougou
In Ouagadougou, many figures still go through a notebook and a calculator: an NGO project budget consolidated by hand every quarter, a shop's till in Ouaga 2000 recounted every evening, a Rood Woko trader's stock written on loose sheets. This plan is for NGO staff, junior accountants, assistants and traders who want a reliable workbook instead of totals retyped at the end of every month.
The recommended course is the practical Excel course: tables, formulas and analysis for work, taught in French: level 3 Intermediate, 75,000 FCFA, 14 h. It has six modules of written lessons, a PDF handout per module, exercises with answer keys after each lesson, a quiz per module and two projects to submit. Examples are in FCFA (a shop in Thiès, a pharmacy in Bamako, a wholesaler in Cotonou) and transfer easily to a business in Burkina Faso.
The prerequisites are modest: be comfortable with a computer and files (levels 1 and 2 of the track are recommended), know how to add, multiply and work out a percentage, and have access to Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, which is free. If you don't have Microsoft 365, don't pay anything extra: Google Sheets covers most of the exercises, and the XLOOKUP lesson also teaches VLOOKUP and INDEX MATCH, which work everywhere.
The week-by-week plan
Lessons take close to 8 hours; the rest goes to exercises and the two projects (about 1 hour for the pricing sheet, 2.5 hours for the final workbook). Plan three sessions of 70 to 80 minutes a week, for example two evenings and Saturday morning.
| Week | Modules | What you learn | What you produce | Estimated time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Modules 1 and 2 | Clean tables, FCFA and date formats, freeze panes, SUM, AVERAGE, absolute references with $, margins and 18% VAT | Your pricing sheet with margin, discount and VAT | 3.5 h |
| Week 2 | Module 3 | IF, IFS, COUNTIF, SUMIFS, XLOOKUP, fixing #N/A and #DIV/0! errors | Project 1: your automated price and sales sheet | 3.5 h |
| Week 3 | Modules 4 and 5 | Sorting, filters, conditional formatting, drop-down lists, duplicates, pivot table, charts, mini dashboard | Your monthly pivot table analysis and two annotated charts | 3.5 h |
| Week 4 | Module 6 | Sales log and till for Wave, Orange Money and cash, stock sheet with alert threshold, invoice, budget, protecting and sharing | Final project: an SME management workbook | 4 h |
| Catch-up | If needed | Retake a quiz below 70%, redo an exercise | Quizzes passed for the certificate | 1 to 2 h |
| Total | 6 modules | 24 lessons, 6 quizzes, 2 projects | A complete, protected workbook ready to share | About 14 h |
One practical tip: do the exercises on your own figures from week 1 (a month of sales, an activity budget, your stock), removing any personal customer data. At the end of week 4 you don't leave with a practice file, but with the tool you will use on Monday.
If your week is busy or power cuts are frequent, spread it over five weeks: the course page itself counts four to five weeks at three sessions a week. Lessons can be read on a phone, even on 3G, with no app to install; keep the computer for practice.
What it costs compared with other options
| Option | Indicative 2026 price | Format | What matters to you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kolonell Academy, level 3 Excel | 75,000 FCFA once (about 115 EUR) | Online, self-paced, lifetime access | 6 modules, PDFs, exercises with answer keys, 2 projects, numbered certificate |
| In-person Excel course in Ouagadougou | 75,000 to 150,000 FCFA (ballpark) | 3 to 5 days or fixed evening slots | Attendance required, travel |
| Free YouTube tutorials | 0 FCFA, plus data | Scattered videos | No structured path, no project |
| Google Sheets | Free | Browser or phone | Covers most of the exercises |
| Full Office Productivity track | 350,000 FCFA instead of 450,000 | 5 levels | From beginner to the full Office suite and beyond |
If you want more than Excel, the Office and productivity track bundles all 5 levels for 350,000 FCFA instead of 450,000 (about 535 EUR). After Excel, level 4 (Complete Office suite: Word, Excel and PowerPoint at work) gets the three programs working together.
Mini case study
Learn this skill with Kolonell Academy
Short, practical online courses (taught in French), graded exercises, certificate. Pay with Wave or Orange Money.
Consider a hypothetical learner: Rasmata, 27, an administrative assistant at an NGO in Ouagadougou. At the end of every month she consolidates the spending of three projects by hand, which takes her about 6 hours. After module 5, a pivot table fed by a clean log could bring that down to about 1.5 hours, saving 4.5 hours a month, or 54 hours over a year.
On the money side, here is a purely illustrative calculation. The course page states that a custom management workbook for a shop or SME is commonly billed 30,000 to 150,000 FCFA (rates seen in Dakar in 2026, to be adjusted for Ouagadougou). If Rasmata built two workbooks at 40,000 FCFA in the evenings for traders in her neighbourhood, she would cover the 75,000 FCFA course fee. This is an assumption, not a promise: no income is guaranteed, and everything depends on your network and the quality of your workbooks.
FAQ
I don't have Microsoft 365. Can I still take the course?
Yes. Google Sheets is free and covers most of the exercises, and every important difference with Excel is flagged in the lessons. If your Excel version lacks XLOOKUP, the lesson also covers VLOOKUP and INDEX MATCH, which work since Excel 2010.
What if I can't keep up the four-week pace?
Nothing serious: access is for life, updates included. The four-week plan assumes 3.5 to 4 hours a week; at 2 hours a week, allow 7 weeks for the 14 hours.
How do I pay from Burkina Faso?
You pay by Wave or Orange Money at +221 77 596 93 33, and your access is activated within 24 working hours after payment. Access is not refundable once activated, so read the free module 1 first to check the level suits you.
Is the certificate worth anything?
You receive a numbered Kolonell Academy certificate, verifiable online via QR code, which you can add to LinkedIn, by passing each module quiz with at least 70%; your final project must also be approved by a reviewer. It is neither a diploma nor a state certification: it attests to a course completed and skills practised.
Do I need to be good at maths?
No. The course asks for addition, multiplication and percentages, and every formula is first explained on a concrete FCFA case, for example 18% VAT on a 12,500 FCFA price.
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Take the next step. Enroll in Practical Excel: tables, formulas and analysis for work: 14 h, 75,000 FCFA (about 115 EUR), numbered Kolonell Academy certificate verifiable online. Pay with Wave or Orange Money. Questions? WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
