Gabon’s Economy Minister Thierry Minko and African Development Bank (AfDB) resident representative Nouredine Kane Dia have signed a grant agreement to finance the COSAFE project, an initiative to build "satellite accounts" for Gabon's forest, oil and mining sectors.
The project is designed to move beyond export volumes and measure precisely the value added, jobs and income actually generated by Gabon's natural capital, Sikafinance reported on August 26.
Led by the Ministry of Economy, COSAFE will isolate two pillars of the national economy—the forest-wood value chain and the extractive industries covering oil and mining—and dissect their output, intermediate consumption, employment and linkages with the rest of the economy.
The project aims to give the state a statistical tool to weigh what each sector truly returns against the tax breaks and public investment it receives, effectively turning accounting into an instrument for economic arbitration aligned with the National Growth and Development Plan (PNCD).
According to the World Bank, some 97 percent of Gabon's exports derive from just oil, manganese and wood, with oil alone representing over 65 percent of shipments. Oil still drives much of public revenue, while manganese places the country among the world's leading producers.
An AfDB country assessment underlines that transparent, sustainable exploitation, combined with greater local processing, is a key lever to narrow the financing gap.
The initiative fits squarely with President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema's push to diversify the economy and process more at home—whether through deeper timber processing, manganese value chains or gas development. Production plans were recently revised upward, with manganese output set to reach 9.4 million tons in 2026 and oil up 3.1 percent, underscoring the weight of extractives in 2026 fiscal planning.
