Brigi Rafini

Brigi Rafini (born 29 March 1953) is a politician in Niger who served as the Prime Minister of Niger from 2011 to 2021. A native of Iférouane in Agadez Region and an ethnic Tuareg, Rafini was Minister of Agriculture in the late 1980s and Fourth Vice-President of the National Assembly of Niger from 2004 to 2009. He was appointed as prime minister after Mahamadou Issoufou took office as president on 7 April 2011. He is also notably the first Tuareg in office.

Career Brigi Rafini was born in 1953 in Iférouane in the Agadez Region, part of the Colony of Niger in French West Africa. He attended primary and secondary school in Iférouane and Agadez. From 1971 to 1974, he attended the National School of Administration (ENA) in Niamey, returning for advanced study from 1978 to 1981. In 1983, he spent a year at the French International Institute of Public Administration (IIAP) in Paris. He returned to Paris a decade later, to the French National School of Administration (ENA) from 1994 to 1995.

Prime minister When Mahamadou Issoufou, who won the January–March 2011 presidential election, took office as President on 7 April 2011, he promptly appointed Rafini as Prime Minister. The 23-member government headed by Rafini was appointed on 21 April 2011. On 2 April 2016, when Issoufou was sworn in for a second term, he reappointed Brigi Rafini as Prime Minister.