IslamicFinance.de

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), a development finance institution of the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations Deposit (CDC), a financial institution backed by the government of Gabon, recently announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding for the creation of a private equity fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Gabon and elsewhere in Central Africa.The goal of the fund is to foster the growth of SMEs that have been ill-served by banks and thus to grow the region’s economy as a whole.
As of October 13, 2015, ICD reported total assets of USD 1.7 billion and annual income of USD 97 million. No financial information for CDC is available. CDC has a balance sheet of XAF 195 billion (approximately USD 315 million).

The government of Gabon wants to change its financial laws to allow Islamic finance, in order to bring together Shari'ah compliant FDI as part of the economic reforms it is currently implementing.
As part of the planned reforms in the financial law, the country recently held a conference to find out how Islamic finance can gain consciousness across the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC).