Burkina Faso's richest man Mahamadou Bonkoungou ventures into Gabon's tuna industry through new subsidiary IB Fish

Mahamadou Bonkoungou's EBOMAF is moving into Gabon's fishing industry, accelerating its expansion beyond the road construction and public works contracts that built its name across West and Central Africa.

The Burkina Faso-based conglomerate has established IB Fish, a subsidiary focused on industrial tuna fishing and seafood processing along Gabon's Atlantic coast. The move, reported by Jeune Afrique, comes as Gabon pushes to build more value-added industries tied to its natural resources rather than continuing to export raw materials with limited local transformation.

EBOMAF built its business on large state infrastructure contracts in countries across the region. Roads, bridges and public works are still the heart of the group. But Bonkoungou has been systematically broadening the operation, adding aviation, banking, agriculture and logistics over the years. Fisheries is the newest layer.

IB Fish has been developing a fleet of fishing vessels while simultaneously investing in processing infrastructure designed to keep more of the seafood value chain inside Gabon rather than sending raw catch to be processed abroad. The company is targeting both local and export markets, with tuna as its primary product.

The timing fits where Gabon is right now. Since the 2023 military transition that brought President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema to power, the government has been actively courting investment in sectors beyond oil and mining, pushing for partnerships in infrastructure, logistics, agriculture and manufacturing as part of a broader economic reform agenda. Fisheries has emerged as a priority target given the country's Atlantic access and the strong international demand for processed tuna.

Gabon has had significant marine resources for decades but has struggled to industrialize the sector at scale. Most of the fishing catch historically has been exported with minimal processing, leaving the country at the bottom of the value chain. IB Fish is positioning itself to change part of that equation by combining fishing operations with onshore processing capacity.

The company drew international attention in January when pirates attacked one of its vessels, IB Fish 7, off the Gabonese coast. Nine crew members, including Chinese and Indonesian nationals, were kidnapped. Gabonese authorities and regional security forces eventually responded to the incident. The attack was a sharp reminder of the security environment commercial fishing operators are working in across parts of the Gulf of Guinea, which remains one of the most closely watched maritime security zones on the planet.

The risk did not stop the operation. Commercial fishing activity in the region has continued expanding because seafood demand is strong and the economic stakes for coastal governments are high. Countries are increasingly focused on tightening control over fishing licenses, requiring local processing and capturing more export revenues from finished seafood products instead of raw fish.

EBOMAF's infrastructure footprint across the region could give IB Fish an advantage that a standalone fishing company might not have. Transport and logistics connections built through years of road contracts matter in a business where moving product quickly and efficiently between the dock and the processing plant makes a real difference.

Tuna is among the most heavily traded seafood commodities globally, with consistent demand across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. African governments and analysts have argued for years that the continent loses substantial revenue annually by exporting unprocessed fish rather than value-added products. Gabon's government has extended the same logic it applied to timber and mining to fisheries, pushing for requirements that favor local processing and domestic industrial development.

EBOMAF has not publicly disclosed the full scale of what it is investing in the Gabon tuna sector. Jeune Afrique reported that the group views fisheries as a long-term growth opportunity rather than a short-term play. That framing is consistent with how Bonkoungou has approached other expansions: entering a sector through an initial commercial position and building over time rather than announcing a finished operation.

IB Fish is part of a broader trend across the continent of large conglomerates with roots in construction or commodities moving into agribusiness and food production. The argument is that food systems are less exposed to the commodity price swings that create turbulence in mining or oil revenues. African governments looking to reduce import bills and create industrial employment are receptive to that argument, and several have put active policy frameworks behind it.

Gabon's Atlantic coastline and marine resources have made it a natural candidate for that kind of investment. The question for IB Fish is how quickly it can scale processing capacity and lock in the kind of government and commercial relationships that turn a fishing operation into a durable business.