Gabon's GDP per capita is expected to grow by 8.1 % annually over the next 10 years to reach $8,017 (in current prices). The growth of Gabon's economy has been driven primarily by its economic diversification strategy, which seeks to improve income distribution and employment opportunities.

For the second consecutive year, Gabon is positioned as the richest country in Africa (excluding very small countries), according to the report on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of African countries, published on October 11 by the Center for Study and Reflection on the Francophone World (CERMF). The country owes a place to its GDP per capita, which amounted to $8,017 (5.4 million FCFA) at the beginning of 2022.

This GDP is higher than that of Botswana, which is just behind Gabon with a GDP that, in the same period, stood at 7,348 dollars (4.9 million FCFA) per inhabitant. The GDPs of Gabon and Botswana increased compared to the same period in 2021, when they stood at 3.9 million FCFA and 3.7 million FCFA, respectively.

According to the CERMF, Gabon's good performance in 2022 "results mainly from a proactive policy in terms of diversification carried out over the last decade", to remove the country from its strong dependence on extractive industries and transform local part of production .

Within this framework, the Nkok Special Economic Zone (SEZ), as well as other industrial zones, was created to locally process raw materials before exporting them. The report maintains that this policy has doubled the weight of the wood sector in the national economy, which represented 5% of GDP and 15% of merchandise exports in 2021.

Along the same lines, the Emerging Gabon Strategic Plan (PSGE) implemented in 2009, as well as the plan to accelerate the transformation (PAT) of the Gabonese economy launched in 2021, aimed to industrialize the country by relying heavily on the development of the timber industry. and agriculture, in addition to investing in services, developing the digital sector in particular, and more recently tourism.

This economic diversification policy has allowed Gabon to considerably increase the weight of activities not directly linked to extractive industries in the national economy. This has allowed “the country to have a more solid economy and more capable of withstanding international crises and unfavorable fluctuations in the price and/or production of raw materials, than that of many other large producers of hydrocarbons, minerals or precious stones in the country.” continent,” the report said.

This economic development policy followed by Gabon for a decade has been accompanied by important administrative, legal and fiscal reforms to facilitate business creation and improve the business climate.

The CERMF report on the GDP per capita of African countries classifies the countries of the continent outside of the very small countries "that cannot be taken into account for the establishment of relevant comparisons in terms of wealth and economic and social development, because with a very small population size (less than 1.5 million inhabitants) and a particularly small area, with a territory sometimes barely visible on a geographical map,” indicates the document transmitted by Le Nouveau Gabon.

Among these countries are Mauritius, Seychelles and Equatorial Guinea, which have greater wealth per capita but have a population of between 0.1 and 1.5 million inhabitants, and whose territory is very limited. For example, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritius are respectively 9.5 times and more than 130 times smaller than Gabon...

With an area of 267,667 km², Gabon has a population of 2.3 million. Gabon is Africa's eighth largest producer of oil (and 36th globally), its second largest producer in Africa and its third largest producer of manganese in the world (and on its way to becoming second, behind South Africa). At the same time, Botswana, with a population of 2.4 million, is the world's second largest producer of diamonds, after Russia.

Fountain: EcomNewsAfrique