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Industrial activity in Gabon is still at an early stage, with the limited size of the local market and high costs of industrial activities posing major challenges to the development of the sector – indeed, industry accounted for just 7.7% of GDP in 2011. However, major strides have been made in recent years to promote investment and development in industry, including the Industrial Gabon...

There are currently eight insurance companies in Gabon, three of which specialise in life insurance. Most are subsidiaries of foreign firms, though locally owned Ogar is the country’s largest insurer. Capital investment of insurance companies has been on the rise, with a total of €142.5m having been invested in 2020, up 3.8% year-on-year. Net incomes in life insurance have also performed well,...

Headquartered in Libreville, the Central African Stock Exchange (BMVAC) is one of only two regional bourses serving the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Activity on BMVAC was relatively low in 2011, with just one public offering issued by Chad and limited secondary trading activity. However, the bourse has shown strong progress since its operations...

In spite of the country’s relatively small population, there are 14 financial institutions, nine of which are banks. Two of these are majority-controlled by the state and the other seven are privately owned. The largest three banks – BGFIBank, BICIG and UGB – are responsible for more than 80% of loans and deposits made in the country. While penetration remains relatively low, Gabon’s expected...

Stimulating investment in agriculture is considered a crucial part of diversifying Gabon’s economy and reducing dependency on food imports. The government is currently supporting a two-track investment programme that will encourage agro-industrial projects to increase the sector’s contribution to GDP and support small-scale farmers to boost production for local markets. Gabon has great potential...

Producing approximately 89m barrels in 2011, Gabon is currently the sixth-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. While oil production has been on a steady decline since peaking in the late 1990s, offshore and deepwater fields remain largely untapped. Given greater industrialisation, growth is expected to occur in electricity generation, with new generators and three new dams currently under...