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GABON

Gabon tussles with IMF over loan programme

Gabon, which is due to start repaying $2bn worth of eurobonds next year, equivalent to 5% of the country's GNP, is struggling to agree the terms of a new programme with the IMF and has turned to regional banks. [...] (474 words)

Issue dated 02/06/2021 Reading time 2 minutes

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Business

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IMF splashes out for some CEMAC states but leaves N'Djamena and Bangui hanging

Since the beginning of the year, the International Monetary Fund has signed support programmes with four of the six countries in the oil-dependent and Covid-weakened Central African monetary zone. But its talks with Chad and the Central African Republic have stalled. [...]

GABON Politics 10/11/2021

Libreville audits state contractors in hope of reducing external debt

While President Bongo is busy travelling to foreign capitals, in Saudi Arabia, Scotland and Morocco just a few days ago and this week in France, back at home a small team has been busy auditing foreign companies carrying out state contracts, and fining those who are not on schedule. [...]

CONGO Finance Politics 29/10/2021

Finance minister Andely ready and armed for IMF negotiations

In a decree signed on 6 October, Finance Minister Roger Rigobert Andely created the National Committee for Multilateral Surveillance and Monitoring of Economic and Financial Reforms in the Republic of Congo. [...]

LESOTHO SOUTH AFRICA Diplomacy 20/10/2021

Lesotho Highlands Water Project beset by delays amid water crisis

As heads of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project play musical chairs, the bi-national scheme is falling further behind schedule, much to the dismay of South African local authorities. [...]

Katse, one of the dams already completed under the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. © Marinda Louw/Africa Media Online/Alamy Banque D'Images

GABON Defence Business 28/09/2021

Defaulting Libreville leaves chopper languishing in Eurotradia and Heli Technique's hands

Due to a lack of cash, the delivery to Libreville of a helicopter upgraded by Heli Technique has been blocked for three years. The aircraft was purchased through Eurotradia, a consultancy firm now integrated into the ADIT group. [...]

BOTSWANA Mining 26/07/2021

Jacob Thamage back at helm of Botswana's Diamond Hub

After serving as coordinator in 2012 at the pivotal moment when De Beers moved its sales offices from London to Gaborone, Jacob Thamage is returning to the position. A safe bet for Botswana during these unstable times in the industry. [...]

AFRICA Finance Commodity traders 09/07/2021

Carlos Lopes lobbies the international institutions for industrial platform developer Arise IIP Free

Economist Carlos Lopes, who is at once a senior international civil servant, an economy professor and a consultant, is trying to help Arise IIP to develop industrial zones in Africa without crossing swords with the international financial institutions [. [...]

Guinea-Bissau economist Carlos Lopes. © Ángel Medina G./EFE/Newscom/MaxPPP

GABON Politics 14/06/2021

Gendarmerie intel chief sidelines his number two

Spymaster Jean-Norbert Madjoupa, who is at odds with his deputy, delegates his powers to other more trusted officers when he travels abroad. [...]

GABON Commodity traders Politics 10/06/2021

IMF questions Arise IIP tax exemptions

An International Monetary Fund team left Gabon early this week after a long annual consultation mission during which it laid out its conditions for granting the country a new loan programme. They include the scrapping of numerous tax and customs exemption regimes, and in particular one in place for the Nkok special economic zone. [...]

Breaking newsGABON 04/06/2021

Ahead of joining Commonwealth, Gabon sends envoy to Paris

Breaking news, published on 04/06/21 at 12 p.m. - Gabon's foreign affairs minister met his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian this morning, as part of president Ali Bongo's recent diplomatic drive which includes applying for Commonwealth membership but also forging closer ties with Russia. [...]

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. © Sadak Souici/Le Pictorium/MaxPPP

Gabonese President Ali Bongo getting off his plane during a visit to Beijing, 2018. © Jin Liwang/Xinhua News Agency/Newscom/MaxPPP

Focus

GABON Finance Politics 24/05/2021

Private jets, offshore fields, football, magazines: the presidential palace's untraceable holdings

A string of offshore companies with no identified owner have been linked to transactions within the presidential couple's entourage. All were incorporated by the same financiers who also happen to be associates of Gabon's sovereign wealth fund. [...]

TUNISIA Business 20/04/2021

Mechichi talks with Dominique Strauss-Kahn ahead of crunch IMF meet

With Tunisia on the verge of default, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi has begun talks with Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the hope that the former IMF chief will help him persuade the institution to resume its financial support. [...]

Tunisia Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi. © Mohamed Messara/EFE/Newscom/MaxPPP

Inner circles

GABON Politics 26/03/2021

Noureddin Bongo's parallel task force network

President Ali Bongo's coordinator and eldest son Noureddin Bongo has found a way to assert his influence in government: task forces. These ad hoc teams of civil servants and consultants are ostensibly there to assist government departments, but can have a tendency to bypass them. [...]

GABON Business 03/11/2020

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