Gabon’s new president faces tough economic challenges

Big challenges await Gabon’s new president Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema as he takes the reins of a country rich in oil but struggling with debt.

The general was sworn in on Saturday after winning 94.85 percent in the April 12 vote in which international observers signalled no major irregularities.

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His victory followed a 19-month transition after he took power in a coup in August 2023 that ended the 55-year rule of the Bongo dynasty.

Following his inauguration in front of around 40,000 people at a stadium near Libreville capital, Oligui enjoys strong popularity as he begins his term but faces high expectations of economic and social reform.

The new 50-year-old president said he measured “with gravity, the immensity of the burden that falls upon him”.

He campaigned on six “pillars”: reform of the water and electricity sector, youth employment through business promotion, housing and transport, social justice and human capital, sustainable development and governance reform.

– Infrastructure promises –

Among the pressing issues is the electrical grid, managed by the public company SEEG, which suffers regular failures due to a lack of investment.

Gabon suffers a glaring lack of infrastructure: it has a “highway directorate” but no highways.

Despite successive building plans, only 2,000 of its 10,000 kilometres (just over 6,000 miles) of roads are usable, according to official data.

The new head of state has cast himself as a “builder”, proudly launching or relaunching numerous construction projects, particularly in Libreville.

Campaign posters pictured him wearing a builder’s hard hat and public television regularly broadcasts images of buildings under construction.

Among the major projects promised during the campaign was a new north-south railway line linking the deep-water port of Mayumba and the Booue hydroelectric dam.

– Diversifying from oil –

Faced with the depletion of its oil resources, Gabon needs to diversify its economy.

“There is still dependence on oil,” said Francois Gaulme, an associate researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).

“The economy needs to be diversified, and this has never been done on a large scale.”

Although oil extraction, the bedrock of the economy, has generated billions of annual profits since the first drilling in the 1950s, Gabon’s debt has swelled.

From 72 percent of GDP in 2023, it rose to 73 percent in 2024 and is projected to hit 80 percent this year.

Oligui pledged in his speech to work with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank “to better repay our external debt”.

Tidiane Dioh, an international consultant specialising in sub-Saharan Africa, said the country must address “the employment issue, the disparities between rural and urban areas and the issue of payment arrears”.

Though the new government’s aims for economic recovery are “achievable”, Dioh warned: “Sixty years of governance practices cannot be erased overnight.”

Faced with endemic corruption, the president vowed in his address on Saturday to “put an end to impunity, corruption, laxity and laziness”.

– Youth unemployment –

The president faces high expectations from young people, who suffer from an unemployment rate of 40 percent — and more than 60 percent in rural areas, according to official data.

Half of Gabon’s 2.3 million residents are under 20, the World Bank says.

Oligui has promised to focus on training young people for work and to create 160,000 jobs outside the public administration.

He claims to have already created 12,000 jobs in the private sector during the transition.

Economy Minister Mark-Alexandre Doumba told public television channel Gabon 24 that he believes “the return to constitutional order” will restore the confidence of stakeholders.

“Everything is being put in place so that we can have the levers to restart the economy,” he said.

International financiers have recommended the government cut public spending, reassess the tax base and leverage carbon credit schemes — environmental projects that draw investment from global companies seeking to offset their climate-warming emissions.

Indicating Gabon’s potential for these environmental-protection initiatives — contested by some climate policy experts — the World Bank has labelled it an ecological “pioneer”.

The president also faces the task of reintegrating the country into the international community — he wants Gabon to host the 2027 African Union summit, he announced on Saturday.

In a significant step last week, the AU lifted sanctions on Gabon, which had been suspended from the pan-African organisation following the coup.

AFP