As in most sub-Saharan markets, the retail sector has traditionally been dominated by small grocery stores, markets and street sellers in Gabon. However, large-scale retailing took off in the 1990s and continues to expand, thanks in large part to not only headline growth rates, but also to rising household consumption among middle and upper-middle class segments, where...
Like many countries in Africa, Gabon’s economy has largely developed on the back of its natural resources, primarily oil, minerals and timber. Most of these are still exported in raw form, bringing limited economic benefit to the country. However, the industrial sector – and the revenues and jobs it creates – is a focal point for the government’s development plans, with...
The Emerging Gabon strategy is aiming to foster more exploration and production in the mining sector, as well as expansion of local downstream processing capacity. A new mining code under development over the past two years is expected to pass Parliament by the end of 2013 with no major surprises for mining firms, although, as in many other mineral-...
Over the past few years, with commodity prices spiralling ever higher and minerals like gold reaching record levels, many host governments have felt that they were missing out on potential windfalls from their extractive industries – much needed in an era of global belt-tightening. Among conditions of economic uncertainty, the mining sector – on the...
The domestic industrial base is small, but with a concerted government strategy intended to leverage the country's sizeable natural endowments towards higher-value-added processing, there is growth potential. Existing capacity is focused in the areas of building materials, food, beverages and limited timber and manganese processing. Currently,...
While Gabon has a well-established niche in the global mining market as the world’s second-largest manganese producer, its ambition to significantly expand exploration is generating strong interest from junior miners. Many of the majors, some of which are present in the country already, still consider the central African state essentially a...
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