Gabon’s President Brice Oligui Nguema fired the nation’s finance minister, Henri Claude Oyima days after the nation’s credit rating was cut deeper into junk.
Thierry Minko was named as the minister of economy, finance and debt, according to a statement from the presidency on Thursday. He will also be responsible for combating the high cost of living. Marc Abeghe was appointed as deputy minister for the budget. The presidency didn’t give any reason for the changes.
Nguema, who ousted President Ali Bongo in a coup in August 2023, has presided over an economy that’s been slowing and has seen its fiscal deficit widening. Fitch Ratings on Dec. 20 cut the nation’s credit rating to CCC- from CCC.
Since 2023, nearly 3.142 trillion CFA francs ($5.6 billion) have been spent on repaying domestic and foreign debt, Nguema said in a speech on Wednesday, blaming Bongo’s administration. “Despite these constraints, we have chosen to reconcile fiscal discipline with maintaining public investment in order to meet development aspirations.”
While Gabon is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a borrowing facility, it is unlikely to convince the lender, according to Fitch. Economic growth slowed to 1.9% last year from 3.4% in 2024, according to the IMF.
“The continuous accumulation of external arrears to the official sector, the government’s expansionary fiscal policy, and the likely requirement of drastic and unpopular policy changes in a still volatile political environment will be obstacles” to a program, Fitch said.
One of OPEC’s smallest members, Gabon produced 210,000 barrels of oil a day in November, according to data complied by Bloomberg.
The country’s 2029 dollar bonds rose 0.3% to 87 cents on the dollar on Wednesday.
The president also named Clotaire Kondja as the minister for petroleum and gas, while Sosthène Nguema Nguema was made the minister of mines.
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
element
var scriptTag = document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptTag.src = url;
scriptTag.async = true;
scriptTag.onload = implementationCode;
scriptTag.onreadystatechange = implementationCode;
location.appendChild(scriptTag);
};
var div = document.getElementById(‘rigzonelogo’);
div.innerHTML += ” +
‘
‘ +
”;
var initJobSearch = function () {
//console.log(“call back”);
}
var addMetaPixel = function () {
if (-1 > -1 || -1 > -1) {
/*Meta Pixel Code*/
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1517407191885185’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
/*End Meta Pixel Code*/
} else if (0 > -1 && 77 > -1)
{
/*Meta Pixel Code*/
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1517407191885185’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
/*End Meta Pixel Code*/
}
}
// function gtmFunctionForLayout()
// {
//loadJS(“https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-K6ZDLWV6VX”, initJobSearch, document.body);
//}
// window.onload = (e => {
// setTimeout(
// function () {
// document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function () {
// // Select all anchor elements with class ‘ui-tabs-anchor’
// const anchors = document.querySelectorAll(‘a .ui-tabs-anchor’);
// // Loop through each anchor and remove the role attribute if it is set to “presentation”
// anchors.forEach(anchor => {
// if (anchor.getAttribute(‘role’) === ‘presentation’) {
// anchor.removeAttribute(‘role’);
// }
// });
// });
// }
// , 200);
//});
