Libreville, Saturday July 11, 2026 (Infos Gabon) – The debate over transforming local African natural resources is no longer limited to ministries, international summits or corporate administration councils. It’s now taking place in auditoriums, training centers and university curricula.
The third edition of the Yam’NA program, launched jointly by Eramet Comilog and SETRAG, is part of this trend. Behind the announcement of 50 new scholarship opportunities for Gabonese bachelors, a more ambitious strategy is unfolding – one that prepares the skills needed to accompany the country’s industrial transformation over the next few decades.
Lanched officially on July 10 in Libreville, this new edition marks an important evolution of the device created in 2024 by Eramet Comilog within the Beyond program framework and its ‘Act for Positive Mining’ social responsibility strategy. Since its creation, nearly 50 Gabonese students have already benefited from a support system to pursue their higher education in the country.
The arrival of SETRAG as a partner for this third edition opens up a new phase of the program and reinforces its national dimension, associating mining industry and strategic railway infrastructure around a single objective – investing in Gabon’s economic sovereignty.
Beyond financial support given to students, the device aims to bring closer the real economy’s needs to university programs and training policies.
This question is today one of the main challenges facing many African economies. Companies often struggle to recruit specialized skills while graduates face difficulties in finding employment in saturated or disconnected fields with emerging industrial demands.
The partnership between Eramet Comilog and SETRAG appears as a concrete response to this structural problem.
First private employer based in Haut-Ogooué with nearly 3,500 direct jobs, including through its subsidiaries Comilog and ferroviaire SETRAG, the French Eramet group is one of the major economic actors in Gabon and the sub-region.
On the other hand, SETRAG operates the 648 kilometers of Transgabonais that link the interior mining zones to Owendo port and ensures each year the transport of nearly nine million tons of goods as well as several hundred thousand travelers.
The battle for development is now taking place in skills. Africa is gradually entering a new phase of its economic development where the central question is no longer just infrastructure or investment, but available skills to accompany industrial mutations. In this competitive world, countries that will succeed will be those capable of transforming their youth into the main driver of value creation.
The Yam’NA program is part of this long-term logic. By orienting students towards local transformation and related professions and the economy green, Gabon aims to anticipate the needs of its industry rather than just follow them.
The objective is clear: to emerge a generation capable not only to exploit the country’s resources but also to transform, value and make them a durable lever of economic sovereignty. The modalities of candidature and eligibility criteria are available on the Yam’NA program platform (https://bit.ly/4eOHGXo).
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