Post date: Jan 09, 2013 11:1:1 PM
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated in a recent report that unemployment and poverty in Gabon remains on the rise despite the abundance of natural resources, including oil, on which the country is still very dependent.
LIBREVILLE, GABON (REUTERS) - Patiently waiting for customers at Gabon's biggest market, Mont Bouet in the capital Libreville, 38-year-old Cedric Wanjda once dreamt of an office job.
But eight years after obtaining his high school diploma and unable to pursue a university education due to lack of fees, Wanjda was unable to find a job.In order to support his family, he then decided to open a small stall at Mont Bouet where he sells clothes and shoes, bringing in around 400,000 FCFA (800 USD) per month.
Wandja says that entrepreneurship may become the only solution for Gabon's youth, faced with growing unemployment.
"Today, many young Gabonese understand that through entrepreneurship, they can feed their families, and maybe one day, they will become influential business men," he said.
In a country with a population of just 1.5 million people, youth unemployment stands at more than 30 percent.
According to a report released in November by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), poverty and unemployment remain high in Gabon, despite the country's vast natural resources in oil, gold and manganese.
Gabon's economic growth is projected to slow down to 2.3 percent in 2013, from an expected 5.6 percent in 2012, according to the report.
Wandja's story is one shared by many young people in Libreville, many of whom are graduates, who are either entrepreneurs, have taken up odd jobs or work in the informal sector to make ends meet.
Eric Etoung now makes a living as a barber and says that the government should put more emphasis and reinforce the informal sector, to give youths more options in the job market.
"Informal jobs are not valued, when they provide a living for so many young people who have no other options. For example, there are many young people who are studying, and hope to maybe find work in the informal sector, but they lose interest once they find out that informal jobs are not taken seriously, meaning that it's not viewed as something that would interest many young people. Young people then think that the only employment they can find is one where they sit in an office, when that is not the only solution," he said.
While oil accounts for 45 percent of the former OPEC member's GDP, making Gabonone of Africa's highest per capital GDP levels, poverty is still rampant, a paradox that baffles analysts.
With the decline in oil output falling by a third since peaking at 370,000 barrels per day in 1997, analysts say Gabon should start diversifying its economy to compensate for the decline, and expand its mining industry and improve sectors such as telecommunications, forestry and fishing sectors for more revenues and job creations.
"The main challenge in Gabon today is that there are around 90,000 to 100,000 unemployed people, mainly young people, some of whom will be finishing their studies and who will be unable to find employment. That may be dramatic, because at the moment the country's economic predictions are good, prices for raw materials are going up. The government has put in place extensive programs for infrastructure development, and improve the economy to attract more investors. So if we do not adjust the education system to meet the demands of the different sectors, we will have jobs that will be created, but will have no candidates to fill them. There will be young Gabonese who will see jobs being taken by foreigners, who are more qualified than they are," said World Bank analyst, Rick Tsouk Bounde.
Sociology professor Fortune Matsiegui, says the high unemployment levels, caused by years of economic mismanagement where the country's oil money was wasted away by corrupt leaders is a ticking bomb, given Gabon's rich potential.
"We know that Gabon is a country with great potential and is immensely rich. According to the latest economic figures, when you look at the GDP, we are close to becoming a middle income country, meaning that the country's national wealth distributed amongst the population per year is estimated to be around 3,000 USD to 4,000 USD per person. Which is not little, it's not a small amount. So we should be amongst the richest country's not poor or not too rich like some of the biggest economies in the West. But the problem is that the country's wealth is not evenly distributed," he said.
Gabon's Energy Minister Luc Oyoubi last month predicted the country's economy would expand by 7 percent in 2013, supported by double-digit growth in the non-oil sector and pushed by the government's infrastructure programme which includes building roads and housing.