France’s Bollore to invest 100 mn euros into Gabon port

French company Bollore Africa Logistics plans to invest more than 100 million euros in Gabon, most of it into the Owendo port in the capital Libreville, the press reported on Thursday.

“We are in the middle of discussing a plan of 70 billion (Central African CFA) francs (105 million euros, 144 million dollars) into different logistics investments,” head of the group Vincent Bollore was quoted as telling the Gabon Matin daily a day after he met with President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

“The largest of these is the port,” he said. “The port is today completely congested.”

Bollore, a close friend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, heads a group that is a leader in West Africa’s ports sector. It is present in 43 African countries and employs 22,000 people on the continent.

Oil-rich Gabon imports most of its consumer goods and food, with most of these passing through the Owendo port in Libreville.