Gabon’s economy has been stuck below five percent growth for a decade, but President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is now charting a bold new course away from the nation’s longstanding rentier model. In a wide-ranging interview, he laid out a strategic roadmap designed to revive the country’s economic fortunes.

Breaking free from the rentier illusion

The president’s diagnosis of Gabon’s economic stagnation is clear. “Gabon has lived on a rentier model that creates neither growth nor inclusion,” he stated. He pointed to the raw export of oil and manganese as a major economic flaw, saying, “Exporting crude means exporting our jobs.”

Three pillars of a new economic era

To correct this trajectory and build a robust, job-creating economy, the head of state outlined a strategy built on three fundamental pillars:

1. Systematic industrialisation through local processing of raw materials.
2. Economic diversification, with a major push toward agriculture and services.
3. Improving the business climate to create an attractive, investment-friendly environment.

The PNCD 2026-2030: engine for recovery

This vision is embodied in an ambitious programme: the National Growth and Development Plan (PNCD) 2026-2030. The plan aims to propel the country’s growth rate to an unprecedented level between six and seven percent.

The PNCD targets strategic, future-oriented sectors: manganese transformation, development of poultry and cattle farming, digital expansion, and the valorisation of Gabon’s forest resources on carbon markets.

“Gabon has the resources. What it lacked was governance. We have restored it,” affirmed Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema. By linking economic ambition with a return to rigorous governance, the president intends to place Gabon among the continent’s most dynamic nations by 2030.