Director General of Gabon Telecom, Abderrahim Koumaa and his collaborators met with the Minister of Digital Economy, Pastor Ngoua N’neme, on January 29, 2016. At this meeting where were present the president of the regulation council of Posts and Telecommunication, Lin Mombo, and director general of the National Agency for digital infrastructures and frequencies (Aninf in French), Alex Bongo Ondimba, Abderrahim Koumaa told the Minister about the upcoming merger between Gabon Telecom and Moov which are both subsidiaries of Etisalat.

Subsequent to this meeting, news site Gabon Actu indicated that Pastor Ngoua N’Neme, via its Facebook page, reminded “Maroc Telecom’s executives of the two conditions imposed by government for agreeing to the merger namely, maintaining Gabon’s share in Gabon Telcom and preserving jobs”. Indeed, by allowing Libertis, Gabon Telecom’s mobile branch, to merge with Moov, Gabon’s authorities were conscious of the fact that there would be duplicates of positions within the new firm. However, the government of Gabon as a condition for agreeing to the merger between the two telecom companies demanded the preservation of jobs so as to avoid a social tension which could in turn lead to staff reduction.

Once Libertis and Moov merge, the cards of Gabon telecommunication industry will be reshuffled. Truly, only three and no more four operators (Airtel, Libertis, Moov and Azur) would now be competing in Gabon’s mobile industry. Respectively second and third of the market in terms of number of subscribers, behind Airtel, Libertis and Moov, with their merger, could very well stripe Bharti Airtel from its position as leader of the market.