A journey in the meanders

of urbanization
Gabon is one of Africa’s most urbanized countries, with
close to 87% of the population living in cities today and
this has slowly started to become a very serious issue.
The prologue

People slowly left the countryside in

the last 40 years for the main towns
of the country, which are:
Libreville, Port-Gentil, Franceville,
and Oyem, creating a severe
demographic inequality with them
now hosting 80% of the total
population of Gabon (general
housing population census)
 One of the reasons for this
intense urbanization is the
ambitious socioeconomic
development politic for some of
the towns, drastically increasing
their attractivity to the
detriment of the villages and
cities of the backcountry.
Main story
 Ntoutoume Thomas is a
young and successful
property developer living
in Libreville
when he was younger, he and his
parents had to leave his hometown
Nyonie a coastal village for the capital
in search of a better life leaving family,
friends, and all their memories behind.
 After a few years,
Thomas and his family
adapted to their new
life in Libreville. Then one day during a Social
Studies class, he learned about
the phenomenon that pushed
him and his family to relocate
to another town; that
motivated him to find a solution
to solve it.
He then made his mission to raise
the attractiveness of the small
villages and cities of the
countryside and encourage
foreigners, as well as some of the
population, to come to invest and
live there to slow down
urbanization.
As a property developer, he purchases
land in undeveloped or underdeveloped
towns, determines the possible attractive
projects that could be realized, develops
a building program and the design,
obtains the necessary authorizations from
public institutions, and finances them
with his funds as well as loans he receives
after convincing potential lenders with a
credible and profitable business plan
 He started with his village
Nyonie where he built
several housing facilities in
front of the Nyonie river
with a hospital, a
restaurant selling fish,
seafood, and local dishes,
and a supermarket, all
within walking distance
from the residences.
Epilogue
 The project was very successful, and
within a year and a half, Thomas was
able to create tourist infrastructures
and jobs and increase awareness of
the potential of Nyonie; all that
making him even more motivated to
produce the same effect in other
small towns. In 35 years, Ntoutoume
Thomas wants to make Gabon a
generally urbanized country where
all towns have a certain level of
attractivity and a fair share of the
overall population.