Gabon

Local Information

Gabon, officially the Gabonese Republic is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, Gabon is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of nearly 270,000 square kilometres (100,000 sq mi) and its population is estimated at 2.1 million people. There are three distinct regions: the coastal plains, the mountains (the Cristal Mountains and the Chaillu Massif in the centre), and the savanna in the east. Gabon's capital and largest city is Libreville.
Main after Libreville cities are Port-Gentil, Franceville and Oyem.
Originally settled by Pygmy peoples, they were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes as they migrated. By the 18th century, a Myeni-speaking kingdom known as the Kingdom of Orungu formed in Gabon. It was able to become a powerful trading center mainly due to its ability to purchase and sell slaves. The kingdom fell with the demise of the slave trade in the 1870s. Since its independence from France in 1960, the sovereign state of Gabon has had three presidents. In the early 1990s, Gabon introduced a multi-party system and a new democratic constitution that allowed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed many governmental institutions. The actual President is Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba, first elected president in 2009 and reelected in 2016. The future presidential election are planned in 2023.
Abundant petroleum and foreign private investment have helped make Gabon one of the most prosperous countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the fifth highest HDI in the region (after Mauritius, Seychelles, Botswana and South Africa) and the fifth highest GDP per capita (PPP) in all of Africa (after Seychelles, Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea and Botswana). Its GDP grew by more than 6% per year from 2010 to 2012.
Gabon’s largest industries remain the petroleum, minerals (mostly manganese), and timber. The government plans to develop Gabon’s agricultural sector and to improve its national infrastructure. The timber industry is moving downstream into furniture and plywood products.

Gabon belongs to the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale, CEMAC). As a CEMAC member, it uses the Central African franc (CFA), which is pegged to the euro (CFA 656 = € 1).

Hapag-Lloyd in Gabon:

Hapag-Lloyd arrived in Gabon in 2021, represented by local agent SAGA GABON established since 1942.