5 Facts You Should Know About Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda – Gabon’s First Female Prime Minister

Yesterday July 16, President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, appointed the country’s first female Prime Minister, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda in hopes of economic relaunch of the Central African country’s economy as well as provision of necessary social support following the global crisis linked to COVID-19.

5 Facts You Should Know About Gabon’s newly elected Prime Minister:

1. Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda was born in 1964.
2. An Economist by training, she graduated from the Gabonese Institute of Economy and Finance, specialising in Public Finance.
3. A trailblazer: this isn’t the first time she’s rewriting history; Raponda worked as Director General of the Economy and Deputy Director General the Housing Bank of Gabon, in 2012, she served as Budget Minister, two years later she became the first female Mayor of the capital Libreville (2014), as a candidate for Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) – the first woman to hold the position since 1956. She served until 2019.

4.She has also served as President of United Cities and Local Governments Africa.

5. Before her current role as Prime Minister, Raponda was serving as Defence Minister upon appointment February 2019.

Image Credit: Africanews