Former Finance Minister Clement Mouamba appointed as Prime Minister of Congo

Mouamba Clement, the former Congolese Finance Minister, was on 24 April 2016 appointed as the Prime Minister of Congo. He was appointed to the post by Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Clement will be responsible for forming a government in consultation with the president in accordance with the 25 October 2015 constitution.

Also, his major task after being appointed as Prime Minister would be to help in creating jobs for the youth, a majority of whom are struggling with under unemployment.

This task will be linked with diversifying the country’s economy to achieve the President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s ambition of making Congo an emerging country by 2025, the program on the basis of which he was elected known as Path towards development.

Further, the appointment comes a month after Sassou Nguesso was elected to a five-year term that extends his long rule over the oil producing country. Sassou Nguesso led Congo between 1979 and 1992 and returned to power after a civil war in 1997.

The central African country has been gripped by political violence since the election.

Mouamba Clement

• Earlier between 1992 and 1993, Clement has served as finance minister under the country's first elected president Pascal Lissouba, who was ousted from power by Sassou Nguesso in 1997.

• He has also served the country as one-time opposition leader into the government.

• The economist and former officer of the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) led several financial institutions in the country in the 1980s.

• He was a senior member of the opposition Pan-African Union for Social Democracy before being expelled in 2015 for taking part in the talks that paved the way for a constitutional referendum allowing Sassou Nguesso to extend his rule.

• The referendum scrapped a two-term limit on presidential mandates, allowing Sassou Nguesso to bid to stay in office in March elections, which he won with more than 60 percent of the vote.

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