VOA News - Analysts Worry About Effects of Equatorial Guinea Oil Boom

- Analysts Worry About Effects of Equatorial Guinea Oil Boom: "Analysts Worry About Effects of Equatorial Guinea Oil Boom
By Nico Colombant
Dakar
08 March 2007

Colombant report - Download 590k audio clip
Listen to Colombant report audio clip

The oil boom in Equatorial Guinea has done little to reduce abject poverty or improve the livelihood of its citizens, even though it creates economic growth of more than 40 percent per year. Analysts also worry about recent deals the former Spanish colony is making to supply Zimbabwe with oil on credit, and whether its oil industry could cause violence. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from our regional bureau in Dakar.

Equatorial Guinea is Africa's third-biggest oil producer.

Despite a population of less than 500,000 people and a boom that started in the mid 1990s, oil riches have not yet changed standards of living for most. Life expectancy remains less than 50 years. Unemployment is more than 30 percent.

The oil industry offers jobs mostly to foreigners.

Freedom of speech and political opposition are stifled. Human rights activists say jails are notorious for torture.

A lecturer at the Spanish Open University, Augustin Velloso, says the benefits of oil have had few trickle down effects.

'These changes are only for the benefit of the oil industry, for the oil companies and people working for them. You"