According to Gabonreview, drawing on information from Africa Intelligence, the government is asking Gabon Oil Company (GOC) to settle tax arrears of 29.1 billion CFA francs (51.2 million dollars). The amount corresponds to a withholding tax not paid over to the State in connection with the purchase of Tullow Oil's assets in July 2025, a transaction estimated at 307 million dollars net of tax. GOC was supposed to withhold the capital gains tax owed by Tullow Oil before paying it to the Treasury.
The Ministry of the Economy and Finance had granted a schedule of six instalments until the end of April 2026, but the company headed by Marcellin Simba Ngabi is behind on its payments, according to the article.
Gabonreview places the move within a revenue collection drive begun under minister Henri-Claude Oyima and continued by his successor Thierry Minko. In October 2025, the authorities estimated unpaid taxes for 2023 and 2024 at nearly 800 billion CFA francs. The outlet notes that public debt exceeded 71.2% of GDP at end-2025 according to official data, and that the head of state said in February he was open to negotiating a new programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
