{"id":21903,"date":"2026-01-02T16:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/gabon-replaces-finance-minister-as-debt-worries-mount\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:51","slug":"gabon-replaces-finance-minister-as-debt-worries-mount","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/gabon-replaces-finance-minister-as-debt-worries-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabon replaces Finance Minister as debt worries mount"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gabon has become increasingly reliant on regional capital markets to meet its financing needs, though appetite for its debt &#8220;has weakened substantially&#8221;, ratings agency Fitch said last month, when it downgraded the country&#8217;s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Oyima, a prominent banker and businessman, was named finance minister in May, after Nguema won the first presidential election since he took power in a coup in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A Presidential decree released late on Thursday said technical adviser Thierry Minko would be taking over as &#8220;minister of economy, finance, debt and shareholdings, responsible for combating the high cost of living&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The decree said another senior official, Marc Abeghe, would be in charge of the budget at the Ministry.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Fitch&#8217;s decision to downgrade Gabon&#8217;s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating cited a widening fiscal deficit and a dearth of official creditor financing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21904,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-21903","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Gabon's President Brice Oligui Nguema has replaced his Finance Minister, Henri-Claude Oyima, according to a decree, as the oil-producing Central African country grapples with a liquidity squeeze and rising arrears.","published_date":null,"news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21903","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\/21903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25391,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21903\/revisions\/25391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}