In Gabon, the government has decided to raise the retirement age of civil servants from 60 to 62 years.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Libreville, Yves-Laurent Goma
decision government delights civil servants, who prefer salaries to low pensions. Young unemployed graduates – on the other hand – are contesting this decision which they consider to be to their disadvantage because the older ones are not going to ” release » jobs, they say in a country where youth unemployment is close to 40%.
“What are we doing for us?»
Chérubin Mbembo, 37 years old, graduated in civil engineering, has been unemployed for fourteen years. The decision to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62 is disappointing for him: “And we, who are looking for work, what can we do for us? We are left behind“. Several other young unemployed people disapprove of the government’s decision: “But we, who are over thirty, when will we replace our fathers? Because my father is supposed to stop work so that I can replace him!»
Jean-Arsène Houla-Houla, president of a collective of unemployed people (the CJSE), finds this measure “unfair“. “We call outhe said, truly members of the government to review this position, if not also take the measure to allow young people to access the public service at least no later than the age of 40.”
“There are few revenues for a lot of expenses»
One of the best Gabonese social security experts, Janvier Ntoutoume understands the government’s desire to increase the contribution base, but the success of the reform depends, according to him, on several conditions: “We will obviously run into the same difficulties if we do not look at the other parameters. There are few revenues for a lot of expenses.”
The government explains that this decision is part of a series of reforms launched for several years concerning pensions.
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