A country of about 2.5 million people is writing its first national AI strategy, opening a sovereign data centre and pitching a distinct message at the United Nations, all at once. Here is where things actually stand.
By AI Reports Africa
LIBREVILLE, 2 November 2026. Over the past six months Gabon has created a new government directorate for emerging technologies, switched on its first sovereign data centre, carried its AI message to the United Nations in Geneva and, on 30 September, closed a three day consultation in Libreville that produced 22 challenges and 36 recommendations for its first national AI strategy.
The pace is real. So are the gaps. The strategy itself has not yet been written, the capital still faces an electricity shortfall, and fibre internet remains expensive by regional standards. Gabon is building the scaffolding of an AI economy faster than it is pouring the foundations, and officials say as much.
A population already using the tools
The clearest signal of demand comes from usage data rather than policy papers. Microsoft’s report on global AI diffusion for the first quarter of 2026, published on 1 May, placed Gabon third in Africa for adoption of generative AI tools, tied with Libya. According to figures relayed by Gabon Media Time, 15 percent of Gabonese aged 15 to 64 used products such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Copilot during the quarter.
Only South Africa (23.1 percent) and Namibia (15.1 percent) scored higher on the continent. Gabon sat ahead of Egypt (14.8 percent), Senegal (13.9 percent) and Nigeria (10.1 percent). The global average in the same report was 17.8 percent, while the Global North averaged 27.5 percent against 15.4 percent for the Global South. Microsoft’s own warning, as summarised in the coverage, is that the gap between North and South is widening.
Two caveats matter. The figures come from aggregated telemetry adjusted for internet penetration and device counts, so they measure behaviour among connected users rather than the whole population. And Gabonese commentators note that the benefits of AI risk staying concentrated among urban users unless electricity reliability, broadband prices and digital skills improve.
Building the institutions
The government has moved on several institutional fronts this year.
On 22 May, the Council of Ministers adopted two decrees. One creates a regulatory framework and an official label for startups and companies engaged in digital transformation. The other creates the Directorate General of Emerging Technologies, known by its French initials DGTE. According to Digital Business Africa, the new body is meant to steer public policy on innovative technologies, with particular attention to artificial intelligence, digital innovation and inclusion. It is also expected to oversee the ethical use of AI and make sure the benefits reach every province.
That followed earlier groundwork. After a subregional workshop in Libreville in December 2024 organised with the UN Economic Commission for Africa, a national technical committee for AI, the CTN-IA, was set up to coordinate national action and prepare a strategy built on ethical rules, according to the commission.
In April, Libreville hosted the Artificial Intelligence Days, held from 8 to 10 April under the theme of AI, digital sovereignty and economic diversification. The event was tied to the national development plan covering 2026 to 2030, known as the PNCD, and included a startup competition and a pitch session for investors. Weeks later, on 3 May, the first International Forum for Innovation and Development drew about 1,000 participants, 300 companies and 35 countries to the new Omar Bongo Ondimba Congress Centre. Le360’s correspondent reported that President Brice Oligui Nguema’s closing message, read by the digital minister, framed AI as a tool for transparent administration, with digitised visas and tamper proof land registries among the examples. The forum is meant to become annual, with the next edition planned for May 2027.
The strategy process
The centrepiece is the national AI strategy, being prepared with the UN Development Programme. Work opened on 28 September at the Cité de la Démocratie in Libreville and, after three days of concertation involving experts, private sector actors, academics, civil servants and civil society, delivered its findings on 30 September.
The 22 challenges and 36 recommendations are organised around six axes: data governance, talent development, computing capacity, AI ethics, support for economic innovation, and modernisation of public services. The stated vision is a responsible AI serving Gabon’s sovereignty, innovation and development, with a horizon of 2030. The process draws on UNDP’s AI Landscape Assessment, and Gabon Media Time reported that health and tourism are among the first areas where concrete applications are being explored.
Local reporting is careful to say what this is not. The conclusions are a diagnostic and a framework, not the strategy, and they will be consolidated before a formal document is drafted and adopted. Digital Economy Minister Mark Alexandre Doumba stressed that the quality of the data feeding any AI system determines the quality of what comes out, and that sensitive administrative information must be protected. Experts at the workshop also listed obstacles that no technology fixes on its own: resistance to change inside the public sector, a lack of suitable equipment, and reluctance to share data between ministries. They recommended firm regulation, permanent human oversight of sensitive applications and rigorous ethics.
A message for Geneva
Gabon has been deliberate about how it presents itself abroad. At the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, held in Geneva on 6 and 7 July, Doumba argued against the race for the fastest and most powerful models. “It is not about being first on AI. It is about deploying AI widely,” he said, according to CIO Mag. His point was that the real question is who builds the institutions, rules and judgment needed to deploy AI responsibly. Gabon Media Time reported that the delegation also used the occasion to promote Gabon’s candidacy to the Council of the International Telecommunication Union.
The positioning suits a small, resource rich country that cannot compete on compute or model building, and it fits the strategy’s emphasis on governance and use cases over frontier research. UN Secretary General António Guterres opened the same dialogue by calling for organised global governance and said he would propose a global fund for AI capacity in developing countries, a proposal of obvious interest to a state like Gabon.
Servers, power and fibre
Infrastructure is where ambition meets arithmetic.
On 3 July, President Oligui Nguema inaugurated what is described as Gabon’s first sovereign national data centre in the Nkok Special Economic Zone. Operated by ST Digital, it is a Tier III facility able to host up to 3,000 servers and is intended to bring sensitive data from government, banks and mobile money operators back onto national soil. It is partly solar powered. WeAreTech Africa put the investment at 8 billion CFA francs, roughly 14 million dollars.
A larger project is in the pipeline. Gabon and American company Cybastion have discussed a national data centre in Libreville designed with AI workloads in mind, alongside a 20 megawatt gas fired plant, according to meetings reported in January. After an economic mission to Washington that ended on 11 March, officials said they were seeking financing for 200 additional megawatts of generation, which WeAreTech Africa described as the first condition for the AI data centre to operate. The same report cited an electricity deficit of about 220 megawatts in Libreville. Gabon Media Time has also reported that 100 million dollars was mobilised in Washington for the data centre, though the details of that financing were not available in the coverage reviewed. Le360 asked at the time whether the arrangement reflected an “America First” model of partnership.
On connectivity, officials told the September workshop that Gabon has about 1,800 kilometres of fibre in place, with more than 200 kilometres added since April, and that a second public data centre is planned for 2027. A separate report in September cited plans for 1,651 kilometres of additional fibre. The infrastructure agency SPIN and operator Gabon Fiber have signed an agreement to operate and extend the national backbone, which the minister said should double fibre capacity and eventually bring down the price of internet.
Price is the sore point. GabonReview reported that an entry level 50 Mbit/s fibre plan costs more than 40 dollars a month in Gabon, against roughly 20 to 25 dollars for comparable offers in several West African countries. Reliability is another concern: on 24 August a cut on the national backbone disrupted Airtel voice and internet services in several provinces, including Haut Ogooué and Woleu Ntem. And with a population of about 2.5 million, analysts quoted in regional coverage note that the new data centre will need customers beyond government to prosper in a competitive regional cloud market.
A sceptic quoted by Le360 at the May forum put the problem bluntly, asking what AI can mean in Libreville with the current cost of electricity and bandwidth. Optimists in the same report answered that the government had already delivered a congress centre, a flagship forum and new diplomatic ties in a year.
Partners, and who shapes the agenda
Gabon is spreading its bets across partners.
Morocco. During GITEX Africa in Marrakech in April, the two countries signed agreements covering AI, training and digital regulation. Morocco will fund 15 Gabonese students at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University from September 2026, according to Ecofin.
United States. Beyond the Cybastion projects, the US embassy has backed free training in cybersecurity, networks, AI and programming. More than 130 young people have enrolled since June, the programme aims to certify 1,000 local talents, and the embassy recorded more than 6,000 applications, according to Gabon Media Time.
China. A Gabonese delegation spent two weeks in Beijing on a programme covering AI, emerging technologies, robotics and smart manufacturing.
UN agencies. UNDP is the lead partner on the strategy, the Economic Commission for Africa helped shape the April AI Days and earlier groundwork, and UNESCO supported an outreach event in Gabon in April under its network on AI supervision.
The spread of partners reflects the sovereignty theme in official speeches, but it also raises a practical question for the strategy: whose standards, cloud services and models will Gabonese institutions end up depending on, and who will own the data?
Skills and startups
Human capital was named a top priority at the September workshop, and activity at the grassroots is picking up. On 28 October, the minister for SMEs and entrepreneurship, Zenaba Gninga Chaning, launched an AI training programme for 100 young project owners in Libreville, according to Xinhua. A youth leadership programme run by YALI alumni this year is built around AI and governance, and a Vivatech Gabon side event in June gave the technology community a stage. UNDP has also moved to connect local startups with its Italian AI Hub, following the strategy workshop.
The new startup label is the policy tool that may matter most here, because it gives young companies a legal status to build on and a signal for investors. Whether it comes with access to capital, public procurement and compute is the question founders will be asking.
What remains unresolved
The strategy is still a draft in the making. Until a document is adopted, with budgets, owners and deadlines attached, the six axes remain intentions.
Regulation is thin on the public record. The DGTE is mandated to oversee ethical use of AI, and workshop participants called for strict rules and human oversight. In the coverage reviewed for this report, no standalone AI law was identified. Readers and officials should check the status of data protection and AI specific legislation as the strategy takes shape.
Data is both the asset and the weak point. The minister’s own warning about data quality, and the reluctance of ministries to share information, suggest that public sector AI will move slowly even if infrastructure arrives on time.
Power is the binding constraint. The 200 megawatt financing is described as a precondition for the AI data centre. Until it is secured, ambitions for large scale compute stay on paper.
Affordability and inclusion. High fibre prices and uneven connectivity mean that the 15 percent adoption figure may describe a connected urban minority. Social tensions are also part of the backdrop: Le360 noted frustrations among citizens even as investors praised the country’s security, and a protest wave that began in the education sector was reported in January.
What to watch
- The consolidation and formal adoption of the national AI strategy, and whether it carries funding.
- Financing and construction of the 200 megawatts of new generation tied to the AI data centre.
- The second public data centre planned for 2027 and the fibre expansion under SPIN and Gabon Fiber.
- How quickly the DGTE becomes operational and what rules it issues on ethical AI use.
- The second International Forum for Innovation and Development in May 2027, and the next round of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, planned for New York.
Gabon’s argument in Geneva was that success in AI will be measured by how widely it is used, not by who built it first. The next twelve months will show whether the country can supply the power, data and affordable connectivity that argument requires.
