Insurance

As with many of Africa’s emerging markets, a number of challenges face Gabon’s insurance sector, including low insurance awareness, a small domestic client base and declining oil production. And yet the Gabonese market remains one of the largest in the sub-region, and it is set to expand in the coming years as the demand for personal insurance lines increases. Despite its modest size, the local insurance sector is highly competitive, with eight companies vying for market share. Rising industrial and construction activity, coupled with the expansion of the market through newer lines such as life and health coverage, have supported growth in recent years. Government efforts to expand industrial activity across a number of different sectors, including timber processing and mining, stand to increase demand for related lines of insurance in the medium term.