Housing Finance in Gabon

Overview

This profile is also available in french here.

To download a pdf version of the full 2021 Gabon country profile, click here.

Gabon is a Central African country, which shares its borders with Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Congo. It is a sparsely populated country with fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants. Nevertheless, at 90.09% in 2020 it has one of the highest urban population rates on the continent: more than four out of five Gabonese live in cities. The country’s two largest cities, Libreville and Port-Gentil, alone account for 59% of the total population.

Gabon’s national economy is mainly based on oil (more than 50% of GDP), which makes it vulnerable to economic underperformance in the event of a substantial drop in the price of a barrel of oil on the international market. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has been an additional factor in the economic underperformance that has led to gross domestic product contracting in 2020. To combat the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, the government has implemented a recovery plan estimated at approximately 3% of GDP (CFA249.9 billion or US$451.7 million).

The government reform program aims to restore macroeconomic stability and lay the foundations for inclusive growth to reduce dependence on oil rents. In so doing, the country seeks to revive its agricultural sector, investing approximately CFA327.9 billion (US$592.8 million) in this sector in 2020. Indeed, this sector has strong growth potential, thanks to the country’s 22 million hectares of forests, 1 million hectares of arable land favorable to the development of food crops, and more than 800 000km of maritime coast.

Find out more information on the housing finance sector of Gabon, including key stakeholders, important policies and housing affordability:

Each year, CAHF publishes its Housing Finance in Africa Yearbook. The profile above is from the 2021 edition, which has up-to-date profiles for 55 African countries.

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