Gabon's 2026 revised finance bill includes undisclosed $1.5 billion loan from Société Générale
via Gabon Review3 min read
Gabon's 2026 Revised Finance Bill, currently under review by the National Assembly's Finance Committee, contains an undisclosed 857.85 billion CFA francs approximately $1.5 billion bond loan from French bank Société Générale. An economist from the National Institute of Management Sciences, consulted by GabonReview, highlighted Article 97 of the bill, which authorizes this ten-year loan. This significant financial operation was not mentioned in the Council of Ministers' communiqué on May 22, nor in any public government statements. The economist noted that the loan, if issued, would likely incur an interest rate between 11% and 13% due to Gabon's CCC rating by Fitch, which is only two notches above default. This would result in annual interest payments of 95 to 110 billion CFA francs over ten years, totaling approximately 1,000 billion CFA francs in interest alone for an 858 billion CFA franc loan. These costs would be borne by budgets from 2027 to 2036. Parliamentarians are now faced with approving a major financial commitment that was not formally presented or explained. The Finance Committee is expected to question the terms of the loan, including the interest rate, guarantees, and the specific projects it aims to finance. This comes at a time when Gabon's debt service already consumes 61.4% of state revenues, double the World Bank's alert threshold, raising concerns about the country's financial future for the next decade.
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