Gabon's CNAMGS: admired abroad, challenged at the pharmacy counter
via Gabon Review3 min read
A FINACTU group study highlights Gabon's CNAMGS as a model for universal health coverage in Africa, particularly for its innovative approach to funding. The study, titled "Generalizing Social Protection in Africa," suggests that traditional social security models, based on salary contributions, exclude the vast majority of workers in Africa's informal economy. CNAMGS addresses this by dissociating healthcare access from salary contributions, instead funding coverage for economically vulnerable Gabonese citizens through levies on high-revenue activities like mobile telephony and money transfers. While the financing mechanism is praised as ingenious and a potential path for the continent, the study, authored by FINACTU, which also designed CNAMGS, acknowledges that the system faces challenges in service delivery. For instance, the pharmacists' union Sypharga considered suspending medication delivery to CNAMGS beneficiaries due to unpaid debts, which amounted to approximately 8 billion CFA francs in October 2025. By early 2026, CNAMGS itself tightened regulations on partner structures, demanding dossier regularization to avoid invoice rejections. The article concludes that Gabon serves as a laboratory, pioneering in financing expanded coverage but still needing to prove its long-term sustainability and quality of care for all insured individuals.
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Must ReadFrom June 15 to 16, a high-level meeting in Libreville brought together African parliamentary leaders, experts, and partners to discuss consolidating political transitions. The event, themed "From transition to consolidating the achievements of refoundation: for credible, inclusive, and resilient Parliaments," followed up on the May 2025 Libreville Declaration. Its goal was to foster cooperation, share best practices, and support states transitioning to stable constitutional order, resulting in recommendations for consolidating these achievements. Participants reviewed political dynamics in Africa, highlighting challenges in democratic governance during and after transitions. Ali Kolotou Tchaïmi, President of the National Assembly of Chad, emphasized that legislative institutions must actively contribute to state stabilization and refoundation while strengthening democratic control and citizen representation. His Gabonese counterpart, Michel Régis Onanga M. Ndiaye, stressed the need to restore trust between citizens and institutions and underlined the central role of Parliaments in consolidating democratic legitimacy and the rule of law. Experts Nassirou Arifari Bako and Ibrahima Niane highlighted the importance of building robust institutions and implementing sustainable structural reforms. Other speakers, including Socé Sène and Christine Atoemne Mensah, emphasized citizen inclusion for successful reforms. Discussions also covered cross-cutting issues like security, human r
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