Gabon is planning to introduce a new housing tax in January to finance the Central African oil-producing country’s needs as its debt continues to rise.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The country is facing an acute squeeze on liquidity that has left it increasingly reliant on regional capital markets.<\/p>\n
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Authorities are working on a tax that will be paid monthly by an owner of a dwelling or a tenant, special adviser Marie-Noelle Ada Meyo said on the Gabon Presidency’s social media.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gabon’s treasury will use the funds to improve public lighting, road maintenance and city cleanliness, Ada Meyo said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The contribution will vary depending on the area between 1 000 ($1.80) and 30 000 CFA Francs ($53.88) per month. However, the most vulnerable households, schools and places of worship will be exempted, she added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than a third of Gabon’s population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank. Access to basic services such as water and electricity remains difficult in rural areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gabon’s outstanding public debt increased to 8.6 trillion CFA Francs ($15.45 billion) at the end of October from 7.1 trillion for the same period last year, a document released by the country’s debt authority on Tuesday showed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The overall amount comprises 4.2 trillion CFA Francs ($7.14 billion) of external debt and 4.4 trillion ($7.48 billion) of domestic debt, including 3.2 trillion ($5.44 billion) issued on the regional financial market.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Arrears stood at 443.6 billion CFA Francs ($753 million) at the end of October.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21304,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-21303","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Gabon is planning to introduce a new housing tax in January","published_date":"2025-12-18 12:21:44","news_description":"Gabon is planning to introduce a new housing tax in January","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25026,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21303\/revisions\/25026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}