Bureau Gabonais du Droit d’Auteur et des Droits Voisins
Gabon's state copyright bureau, based in Libreville, which registers authors and collects and distributes royalties on their behalf.
BUGADA (Bureau Gabonais du Droit d’Auteur et des Droits Voisins) is Gabon’s public body for copyright and neighbouring-rights administration, based in Libreville under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. It registers Gabonese authors and performers, licenses users of musical works, and collects and distributes royalties on their behalf.
The office operates under a 2024 legal-status decree and is led by Director-General Gildas Borrys Ndong Nang. In April 2025 it began distributing collected royalties to 613 Gabonese artists, and it has since described moving toward more systematic monitoring of broadcast usage to calculate payouts.
As a state copyright bureau rather than a commercial rights society, BUGADA has no ownership structure to disclose; it is a government-supervised institution, not an independent or major-owned company.