Banking & Financial Services

Gabon’s banking sector is heavily concentrated – a trait of many of the continent’s financial service industries – with the only privately owned local player in an outsized role. However, African banking groups have been rapidly growing their market share. Pushed down by macroeconomic headwinds, lending fell and distressed debt levels rose in 2015, but the sector showed signs of recovery in early 2016. In the short term the fortunes of the banking sector will remain dependent on the wider economic situation, which is in turn heavily linked to the international price of oil. However, government reform efforts at public banks should help put the industry on a more stable long-term footing, and plans for a new payment incidents registry and credit bureau should also boost the sophistication of payment methods and credit provision in coming years.

This chapter includes a dialogue with Claude Ayo-Iguendha, Director-General, BICIG; and Abdelaziz Yaaqoubi, Director-General, UGB; and an interview with Séverin Anguilé, President, Federation of Gabonese Insurance Companies.