Libreville, Saturday, July 11, 2026 – The crucial discussion surrounding the local transformation of Africa’s natural resources is expanding beyond government offices, international summits, and corporate boardrooms. It is now actively taking place within academic institutions, training centers, and the educational pathways of emerging generations.

In Gabon, the third iteration of the Yam’NA program, a collaborative initiative by Eramet Comilog and SETRAG, directly addresses this imperative. While the announcement of fifty new scholarships for Gabonese high school graduates is significant, it underscores a far more ambitious strategy: cultivating the skilled workforce essential for Gabon’s industrial transformation over the coming decades.

Officially inaugurated on July 10 in Libreville, this latest edition marks a substantial evolution for the framework established in 2024 by Eramet Comilog. This initial effort was part of the broader Eramet group’s Beyond program and its “Act for Positive Mining” corporate social responsibility strategy. Since its inception, nearly fifty Gabonese students have already received support to pursue higher education within Gabon.

The strategic inclusion of SETRAG as a partner in this third phase significantly broadens the program’s national scope. It now unites Gabon’s vital mining industry with its most critical railway infrastructure, all working towards a shared objective: robust investment in Gabonese human capital.

Cultivating the professions of tomorrow

For many decades, Africa’s extractive economies primarily exported raw materials while importing the technical expertise required for their processing. Gabon is now actively seeking to reverse this historical trend.

The fifty new scholarships for the 2026-2027 academic year are strategically directed towards sectors identified as pivotal for Gabon’s future prosperity. Priority fields include metallurgy, steelmaking, industrial chemistry, agro-food processing, agroforestry, and various professions aligned with the burgeoning green economy.

This strategic shift is profoundly impactful. It aligns with national aspirations to intensify the local processing of natural resources, generate greater added value within the country, and progressively diminish reliance on imported expertise. The stakes extend far beyond merely ensuring professional integration for the scholarship recipients.

The true objective is to proactively develop the next generation of engineers, technicians, metallurgists, environmental specialists, industrial process experts, and middle managers. These professionals will be instrumental in driving future projects for the transformation of Gabonese manganese, iron, timber, and agricultural products.

In a global landscape defined by the energy transition and intense competition for strategic minerals, producing nations face a new challenge. Simply possessing resources is no longer enough. The imperative is to cultivate the local capabilities to transform these resources and capture their full economic value.

Investing in economic self-reliance

The Yam’NA program targets young Gabonese individuals under twenty-five years of age who have successfully obtained their baccalaureate in the first sitting and aspire to pursue higher education within Gabon in technical, industrial, or environmental disciplines. Applications are open from July 8 to July 28, 2026.

Beyond providing financial assistance to students, the initiative also aims to more closely align the demands of the real economy with academic curricula and vocational training policies.

This alignment represents a significant challenge for many African economies today. Businesses frequently struggle to recruit specific specialized skills, while graduates often face difficulties finding employment in saturated fields or those disconnected from emerging industrial requirements.

The collaboration between Eramet Comilog and SETRAG thus emerges as a tangible solution to this systemic issue.

As the primary private employer in Haut-Ogooué, supporting approximately 3,500 direct jobs through its subsidiaries Comilog and the railway operator SETRAG, the French Eramet group remains a pivotal economic force in Gabon and the wider sub-region.

SETRAG, for its part, manages the 648-kilometer Transgabonais railway. This critical artery connects inland mining zones to the port of Owendo, facilitating the annual transport of nearly nine million tons of goods and hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The development battle hinges on skills

Africa is progressively entering a new phase of economic development where the central focus extends beyond infrastructure and investment to encompass the availability of skilled human capital necessary to navigate industrial transformations. In this global competition, nations that succeed will likely be those capable of empowering their youth to become the primary engine of value creation.

The Yam’NA program embodies this long-term strategic vision. By directing students towards careers in local resource transformation and professions within the green economy, Gabon is proactively addressing its future industrial demands rather than merely reacting to them.

The objective is unequivocal: to cultivate a generation capable not only of extracting Gabon’s resources but, more importantly, of transforming them, enhancing their value, and leveraging them as a sustainable foundation for economic sovereignty. Eligibility criteria and application procedures are available on the dedicated Yam’NA program platform.