Rose Raponda, Gabon’s first female Prime Minister

Libreville, Gabon – Mrs Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda has been promoted to the post of the Prime Minister of Gabon. The lady with a flying career in government and politics, who was the

Raponda, a former Defense Minister, after she was elected as the Mayor of Libreville in 2014, has seen another feather added to her cap. She is now the first female prime minister of Gabon.

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The president of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, appointed Raponda as the country’s first woman prime minister on 16 July 2020, when she was asked to step down as the Minister of Defence.

This is not the first time that she has shaken up Gabonese politics. After serving as budget minister eight years ago, she became the first woman to be elected mayor of the capital Libreville as a candidate for Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). Oussouka Raponda had served as defense minister since February 2019.

56-year-old Raponda will now form a new government while facing two further challenges: dealing with the falling oil production and prices, and tackling the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Raponda who graduated with a degree in economics and public finance at the Gabonese Institute of Economy and Finance has a mammoth task ahead of her. In a statement, the president said that Raponda’s mission would include “ensuring economic relaunch and necessary social support in the light of the world crisis linked to COVID-19.”

There have been more than 6,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the central African country, along with a few dozen reported deaths.

Oussouka Raponda is the sixth prime minister to serve under Ondimba after he succeeded his father in 2009.