In Gabon, the authorities are setting up a committee to monitor the recommendations of the national dialogue, in particular that of establishing a national preference for local companies, such as SMEs-SMIs, in order to face foreign competition. Report by Ntsame Editions, a company created in 2010 in Libreville.
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With our special envoy, back from Libreville, Sébastien Németh
The machines run almost constantly to prepare the books. Last year, Ntsame produced more than a million, but, like others, the company is subject to foreign competition, particularly from Cameroon and West Africa. Novelist and founder, Sylvie Ntsame recounts the beginnings: “ They photocopied two million books which they sold. I then decide to look, already, at the school textbook. There was a monopoly. The French, the big groups… they made me financially asphyxiated. I burned thousands of textbooks. I went bankrupt. »
The national preference policy recommended to the national dialogue is therefore welcomed by the deputy director, Franck Anthony Evouna, particularly, he says, in the sensitive sector of school textbooks: “ Each country must defend its culture. If, all the time, we are told about the history of Charlemagne, who will the little Gabonese refer to to defend his country? For the first time, we have the feeling that all the authorities are, in fact, converging towards made in Gabon. »
Entrepreneur and president of the Gabonese Employers’ Council, Francis Jean-Jacques Evouna sees further and hopes that these measures will push the Gabonese to undertake: “ It’s not innate to us. If our parents sent us to school, it was to come back and work in an office. Entrepreneurs will systematically be born. It is always said, between banks, that the Gabonese was not received… we must change the mentality. »
Some foreign operators are waiting to see how the business climate will evolve with these measures.
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