Gabon cuts scholarships for students in the United States, saying “they never come back”

The faces are dismayed in the video published by All Africa . During his visit to Washington for the US-Africa mini-summit, which brought together five countries including Gabon, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema spoke with members of the Gabonese diaspora.

The new Gabonese president immediately shut down his audience by announcing that in 2026 “there would be no scholarships for the United States or Canada,” on the grounds that “studies are expensive [and that] those who come here [to the United States] never come back.” He continued:

“We prefer to give the scholarship to Senegal, Ghana or Morocco because we know that [the students] will come back.”

Outraged, Gabon Media Time castigates a “logic of selective austerity [which] contrasts with the persistent opulence at the top of the State” . And the site cites as an example “the budget line allocated to the 'Beaux' , an item which notably includes the purchase of vehicles, has increased from 15.6 to 17.6 billion CFA francs [from 23.8 to 26.8 million euros]. Two billion [around 3 million euros] additional allocated to pomp, while aid for students abroad has been eliminated.”

Elected with the promise of leaving the system of corruption inherited from the Bongo dynasty , which lasted more than fifty years, the former putschist soldier notably oriented his electoral campaign towards young people, promising the creation of 120,000 jobs in a country where the unemployment rate reaches 40%.

The issue of the non-payment of scholarships abroad, which represent 5 billion CFA francs (approximately 7.6 million euros), had already caused a stir in recent months, when around ten Gabonese students were threatened with expulsion from Texas Tech University for failure to “pay accommodation and tuition fees.”

The Union then reported on the imbroglios between the Ministry of Petroleum and the Gabonese National Scholarship Agency over the payment of these scholarships to the American university. These scholarships were provided by the Hydrocarbure USA program, launched in 2021 to train high-level petroleum engineers for Gabon. “While files stagnate at the Accounting Agency and responsibilities are diluted between administrations, the students are abandoned to their fate, in the constant fear of imminent expulsion,” the daily lamented.

With the drastic measures announced by the new Gabonese president, the various departments will no longer have to worry about the payment of these scholarships in the United States. Unlike students who have already begun their studies and committed to several years of study.