Raymond Ndong Sima (born 23 January 1955"Raymond Ndong Sima : un homme d'action"
, GabonEco, 29 February 2012 .) is a

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

ese politician who served as transitional

Prime Minister of Gabon The prime minister of Gabon () was the head of government of Gabon. The position was first created in 1960, upon the country's independence from France, but was soon abolished by a new constitution adopted on 21 February 1961. It was, however, ...

from September 2023 to May 2025. He was previously prime minister from February 2012 to January 2014.

Career

Ndong Sima was born in

Oyem Oyem is the capital of Woleu-Ntem province in northern Gabon, lying on the N2 road and the River Ntem. Geography The town lies on a plateau at an elevation of about . It is the administrative and transport center for the surrounding agricultur ...

, located in the north of Gabon, and studied in France. He was appointed to the cabinet of the Minister of Planning and the Economy in 1986, where he was assigned responsibility for

structural adjustment A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

and relations with the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. In 1992, he was appointed as Director-General of the Economy; he remained in that post, while simultaneously retaining responsibility for structural adjustment, until 1994. He then worked as Director-General of Hévégab, a state-owned

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Types of polyisoprene ...

company, from 1994 to 1998.Gérald Mounomby
"Les deux vies de Raymond Ndong Sima"
, Business Gabon, 8 May 2008 . Ndong Sima was appointed to the government as Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development on 17 October 2009. In the December 2011 parliamentary election, in which the ruling

Gabonese Democratic Party The Gabonese Democratic Party (, PDG) is a political party in Gabon. It was the dominant political party in Gabonese politics from 1961 until 2023, when it was deposed in a coup d'état against President Ali Bongo. It was also the sole legal ...

(PDG) won an overwhelming majority of seats, Ndong Sima was elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

as a candidate in Kyé, located in

Woleu-Ntem Province Woleu-Ntem is the northernmost of Gabon's nine provinces. It covers an area of 38,465 km and named after Woleu and Ntem rivers that cross it. The provincial capital is Oyem, which had a total of 60,685 inhabitants in 2013. As Woleu-Ntem ...

.Georges Dougueli
"Gabon : Ndong Sima, un Premier ministre qu'on n'attendait pas"
''Jeune Afrique'', 7 March 2012 . Prime Minister Paul Biyoghe Mba resigned on 13 February 2012. President Ali Bongo then appointed Ndong Sima as prime minister on 27 February 2012. His appointment was considered noteworthy in that traditionally the post of Prime Minister was given to an ethnic Fang from

Estuaire Province Estuaire is the most populous of Gabon's nine provinces. It covers an area of 20,740 km. The provincial capital is Akanda, but the largest city is Libreville, Gabon's national capital. The province is named for the Gabon Estuary, which li ...

, while Ndong Sima was from Woleu-Ntem Province in the north—although he was also a Fang. Prior to his appointment, Ndong Sima had not been considered a particularly important figure on the political scene. Ndong Sima served as prime minister for nearly two years. Following local elections in December 2013, President Bongo appointed Daniel Ona Ondo to replace Ndong Sima on 24 January 2014. Ona Ondo took office at a handover ceremony with Ndong Sima on 27 January. In July 2015, Ndong Sima quit the PDG, complaining that the party was not open to criticism and different points of view. He also criticized the government's handling of finances since he left office. PDG Secretary-General Faustin Boukoubi responded that Ndong Sima was an opportunist and insisted that the PDG was internally democratic. Following his resignation, Ndong Sima ran twice for president against Bongo in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

but lost, obtaining less than 0.5% of the vote each time. Following the

2023 Gabonese coup d'état On 30 August 2023, a coup d'état occurred in Gabon shortly after the announcement that incumbent president Ali Bongo had won the general election held on 26 August. It was the eighth successful coup to occur in West and Central Africa since 2 ...

, he was reappointed by interim president

Brice Oligui Nguema Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema (; born 3 March 1975) is a Gabonese politician and military officer who is currently serving as the fourth president of Gabon since May 2025, having previously served in this role in a transitional capacity from 2023 ...

to become prime minister of a transition government on 7 September. The PDG is a member party of his second government. On 4 May 2025, he resigned from office, which marked the end of the transitional government.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sima, Raymond Ndong 1955 births Living people Fang people 21st-century Gabonese people Agriculture ministers of Gabon Gabonese Democratic Party politicians Members of the National Assembly of Gabon People from Oyem Prime ministers of Gabon