Gabon appoints first woman prime minister

The president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, on Thursday appointed 56-year-old Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda as the country’s first ever woman prime minister.

Christiane, who has been promoted from the defence ministry, now takes over from Julien Nkoghe Bekale, who was appointed premier in January 2019, by the present administration.

In a statement, the president’s office said that her mission will include “ensuring (Gabon’s) economic relaunch and necessary social support in the light of the world crisis linked to COVID-19”.

Oussouka Raponda is an economist by training who graduated from the Gabonese Institute of Economy and Finance, specialising in public finance.

She became budget minister in 2012 and then the first female mayor of the capital Libreville in 2014, as a candidate for Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).

Her appointment is expected to stabilise the economy of the country which is heavily dependent on income from oil, with the central African state badly hit by the slump in the price of crude as well as the impact of the new COVID-19 on trade.