Estuaire

Estuaire province contains Libreville, Gabon's capital and home to approximately 25% of the national population—about 800,000 people in a country of 2.35 million. This concentration makes Gabon the most urbanized country in Africa, with over 90% of the population living in towns and cities. The primate city dynamics that characterize many post-colonial African states are particularly pronounced here, with political, administrative, and increasingly economic functions concentrated in a single metropolitan area.

The province demonstrates Gabon's attempt to diversify beyond oil dependence. In June 2023, the country inaugurated the Gabonese Gold Refinery in the Nkok Special Economic Zone near Libreville, marking an effort to process minerals domestically rather than exporting raw ore. This refinery represents one pillar of a strategy to build value-added industries while oil revenues decline. FDI flows and international investment continue to concentrate in Estuaire, where infrastructure and government proximity reduce transaction costs.

Estuaire's dominance creates source-sink dynamics across Gabon's nine provinces. Timber and manganese from the interior flow through Libreville for export, while government spending and employment opportunities flow disproportionately to the capital region. The August 2023 military coup that deposed Ali Bongo Ondimba illustrated how political power concentrates in Estuaire: the transition government operates from Libreville, with civilian elections provisionally scheduled for August 2025.