Richard Auguste Onouviet

Richard Auguste Onouviet (born 14 June 1949) is a Gabonese politician who has been President of the National Assembly of Gabon since 2016. Holding a succession of ministerial portfolios, Onouviet served in the government of Gabon as Minister of Water and the Environment from 1999 to 2002, Minister of Mines, Energy, and Oil from 2002 to 2007, Minister of Planning from 2007 to 2009, and as Minister of Decentralization and Urban Policy in 2009. A member of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), he has been a Deputy in the National Assembly since 2009.

Onouviet was born in Lambaréné, located in northern Gabon. He studied philosophy and political science in France and was a financial official at Mokta, a French company, from 1976 to 1979. He then held important positions at the Franceville Uranium Mines Company (Compagnie des mines d'uranium de Franceville, COMUF) in Gabon from 1979 to 1986, eventually becoming the Deputy Director-General of COMUF. Subsequently he was Vice-President of the Energy and Water Company of Gabon (Société d'énergie et d'eau du Gabon, SEEG) from 1987 to 1990, and he was also appointed as Special Adviser to President Omar Bongo in 1987.

Onouviet was appointed as Director-General of the Gabonese Development Bank in 1990. In late May 1995, he announced that the bank's profits for 1994 (2.64 billion CFA francs) were 18% higher than its profits for 1993, and he expressed hope that there would be similar growth in 1995.

Onouviet remained Director-General of the Gabonese Development Bank until he was appointed to the government as Minister of Water, Forests, Fisheries, and Reforestation on 25 January 1999; later, in December 1999, he was assigned additional responsibility for the Environment and the Protection of Nature. In the December 2001 parliamentary election, he was elected to the National Assembly as a PDG candidate in Lambaréné. After the election, he remained in the government that was formed on 27 January 2002, but he was moved to the position of Minister of Mines, Energy, Oil, and Hydraulic Resources. That change of portfolio marked a major promotion for Onouviet. A technocrat, he benefited from the support of Georges Rawiri, the influential President of the Senate, who was also a native of Lambaréné.

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