Gabon’s Shift in Exports Draw Port Investment
Mar 25 | 2021
By Ope Onibokun and Robert Masumbuko
The growing importance of the non-crude sector in Gabon has been highlighted in the government’s introduction of the 2025 Gabon Emergent program, which is tagged to transform and diversify its economy and set it on a path to be a world leader in tropical timber.
Historically Gabon has been dependent on oil since 1956, with production peaking in 1997 at 370,000 barrels per day, or bpd. However, with current production at 198,000 bpd, coupled with the ongoing aftereffects of the 2014 oil crash, the benefits of a relatively comfortable GDP per capita of US$8,000, is no longer reflected in the human development indices, such as life expectancy, education, infrastructure, health care delivery and income inequality.