L ibreville, December 22, 2025 – Amid global budgetary tensions, the State of Gabon has just achieved a remarkable breakthrough on the financial market. The public bond issue “EOG 6.25% Net 2023–2028” successfully raised USD 190 million, equivalent to CFAF 118 billion, oversubscribed by more than 212%. This resounding success stands in stark contrast to the bond issues of 2024, which were often hampered by weak investor participation and repeated extensions.

This triumph is not a stroke of luck, but rather the reflection of a restored market confidence in Gabon’s trajectory. Both local and international investors have overwhelmingly endorsed this bond, demonstrating an appetite for Gabonese securities well beyond expectations. The timing is opportune, providing resources to finance major structural projects while diversifying funding sources.

Yet this positive signal challenges the pessimistic analyses of the IMF, the World Bank, Fitch Ratings, and Bloomberg. These institutions, with partial and flawed perspectives, downgrade Gabon’s sovereign rating without accounting for the deep reforms adopted by the government. Strategic asset privatization, optimization of public spending, strengthened fiscal governance, and economic diversification—measures implemented with determination since 2023—are stabilizing public finances and attracting capital. Public debt has indeed risen by 20.6% in ten months, from CFAF 7,133 billion to CFAF 8,606.6 billion (USD 15.37 billion), but this sustainable increase is financing growth, not waste.

Credit rating agencies, trapped in rigid models, overlook these tangible advances. Their fixation on historical ratios obscures Gabon’s resilience, proven by this record oversubscription. Gabon is not a victim of external shocks—volatile oil or pandemic—but a forward-looking nation reinventing itself. This bond success calls for an urgent reassessment of ratings: the market has voted confidence, and it is time for the experts to follow.