Digital and telecommunications: a mature market, uses still to broaden

Context

Digital and telecommunications indicators have risen strongly in Gabon over the past twenty years. The basic legal framework is Law no. 005/2001 regulating the telecommunications sector, which covers network deployment, service provision, spectrum management and the creation of an independent regulator. That role is now held by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP), which publishes quarterly market observatories.

The mobile market is organised around two operators, Moov Africa Gabon Télécom and Airtel Gabon. International connectivity relies on five submarine cables landing in Libreville according to TeleGeography: SAT-3/WASC (2002), ACE and the Libreville Port-Gentil cable (2012), Maroc Telecom West Africa (2021) and 2Africa (2024).

Key figures

World Bank indicators for 2024 and the ARCEP observatory for the first quarter of 2025 give an overall picture of the sector.

Trends

A mobile market saturated in volume

Mobile subscriptions per 100 people peaked at 148.2 in 2014 and stand at 125.3 in 2024 according to the World Bank. ARCEP sees the same stability: the reported base in March 2025 is 0.05% below March 2024. More than 98% of lines are prepaid. Traditional uses are declining: in the first quarter of 2025, voice traffic fell 11.7% and SMS volume 19.1% compared with the previous quarter. Over a year, from March 2024 to March 2025, the decline was 3.4% for voice and 10.4% for SMS.

Internet: growth is slowing

The share of the population using the Internet rose from 13% in 2010 to 63.9% in 2020, then to 68.7% in 2024. The gain was only 1 point between 2022 and 2024, against more than 27 points between 2012 and 2017. Fixed broadband, by contrast, has grown fast since 2020: from 1.07 subscriptions per 100 people in 2019 to 4.69 in 2024.

Contrasting revenue per subscriber

Average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) was 4,243 CFA francs for a prepaid line and 78,207 CFA francs for a postpaid line in the first quarter of 2025, according to ARCEP. Postpaid lines make up less than 2% of the base.

Constraints

• A third of the population offline. With 68.7% Internet users in 2024, nearly a third of residents are not connected, and the pace of catch-up has slowed markedly since 2020.
• A concentrated market. Two operators share the mobile market almost equally, which gives ARCEP's regulation an important role for service quality and prices.
• Revenue under pressure. Mobile segment revenue fell 6.55% in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the previous quarter, and voice and SMS volumes are declining.
• Digital public services still to be built. The World Bank Digital Gabon project, with 68.5 million dollars announced in January 2024, aims to accelerate the adoption of digital public services, expand unique identification, modernise civil registration and strengthen data protection and cybersecurity.

Outlook

Digital transformation now reaches the tax administration: the World Bank notes in its April 2026 Macro Poverty Outlook that tax revenue rose in 2025 thanks to progress in digitalisation, and mentions plans for electronic value added tax (VAT) invoices. Financial inclusion is also advancing: 68.2% of adults had an account in 2024, compared with 19.0% in 2011, according to the Global Findex survey. The main indicators to watch are the share of the population online, the growth of fixed broadband and operator revenue, which Gabon Eco updates from World Bank and ARCEP publications.