The review of financial execution reveals a disbursement rate limited to 21%, leaving a residual envelope of 107.9 million units of account, or approximately 82.4 billion CFA francs, pending absorption.


This operational slowness is manifestly illustrated by initiatives such as the Human Capital Strengthening Project, approved in September 2025 for an envelope of 38.2 billion CFA francs, whose fund utilization rate showed a value of zero by the end of the first quarter of 2026, according to the conclusions of the Country Portfolio Performance Review published on September 15, 2026.

These execution difficulties follow a resumption of interventions by the continental institution in 2025, occurring after a five-year suspension motivated by a high sovereign risk profile and limited borrowing margin. The current structure of commitments favors the social sector at 42.2%, closely followed by agriculture at 38.7%, and governance at 18.3%, while the energy and information technology segments remain marginal, representing respectively 0.3% and 0.4%. 


The assessment made by the AfDB qualifies the overall portfolio performance as unsatisfactory, with the institution noting that 44% of financing instruments are under alert, 33% require enhanced monitoring, and only 23% receive a favorable rating, thus widely exceeding the regulatory alert threshold of 25%.

Fiduciary management constitutes another major point of friction, with the development institution having identified an amount of 207.1 million CFA francs in non-compliant expenditures across all programs. Delays in transmitting accounting certifications have further led to the temporary freezing of special accounts affecting the Public Financial Management Modernization Support Project and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Value Chains Development Support Project. 


To obtain the lifting of this suspension measure, the AfDB requires national authorities to priorly repay 94.1 million CFA francs corresponding to the irregular disbursements observed.


The analysis of these underperformances highlights an accumulation of bureaucratic obstacles, illustrated by an average delay of thirty-two days for obtaining non-objection notices. This situation stems primarily from procedural complexity, lack of mastery of the institution’s rules, and local scarcity of qualified experts, compelling management structures to resort to costly international technical assistance. These institutional constraints weigh on a macroeconomic context already weakened by the decline of the hydrocarbons sector, which still generates nearly 40% of gross domestic product. With a 16.8% contraction in oil production recorded in 2025, the budget balance shifted toward a deficit equivalent to 2.1% of GDP, while the public debt stock stands at 37% of the national economy.


Ndjomo Carlos

Tags: guinée équatoriale bad portefeuille actif décaissement performance financière projet renforcement capital humain gestion fiduciaire obstacles bureaucratiques secteur social agriculture dette publique hydrocarbures