Gabu

Gabú Region concentrates 17.1% of Guinea-Bissau's poor—second only to Oio in the poverty triangle that accounts for over half the nation's poverty. The eastern interior location, bordering Senegal and Guinea, creates landlocked disadvantage compounded by complete dependence on cashew monoculture. When India absorbs $72.3 million in annual cashew imports, the raw nuts originate from regions like Gabú.

Artisanal miners have found gold traces along riverbeds in Gabú and Bafatá, a resource hint that remains unexploited. Without capital, infrastructure, or governance capacity to develop mineral potential, the gold stays in the ground while cashews leave on trucks. The 80% of employment in agriculture means four in five workers in Gabú depend on a single commodity whose price and yield they cannot control.

The region's poverty persistence despite national growth illustrates competitive exclusion at regional scale. When Guinea-Bissau's projected 5.1% growth for 2025-2028 materializes, it will concentrate in Bissau's services and infrastructure. Gabú will supply raw materials and absorb some spillover employment, but the structural disadvantage—interior location, no processing capacity, single crop—won't change. The gold in the riverbeds is a development trap in waiting: valuable enough to mention, not valuable enough to transform.