Samuel Gahigi

Head of Government Relations for Africa Rio Tinto

Samuel Gahigi joined Rio Tinto at the end of 2022 and is currently the Head of Government Relations for Africa. From April 2023 to the end of August 2024, he held in parallel the role of Head of Country for Rio Tinto in Guinea, where he was involved in the negotiations of the Simandou project. He previously served the United Nations for over 20 years in various managerial positions. His most recent position was Political Director at the UN Regional office for Central Africa based in Libreville, Gabon, where he was in charge of supporting the UN’s diplomatic engagement in eleven countries in the region, including Angola, the DRC and Rwanda. Prior to this assignment, Samuel served successively as Deputy-Director for West Africa and the Sahel and for Eastern Africa (2015-2020) at the UN Headquarters, overseeing strategic engagement and supervising the teams in charge of backstopping multi-billion USD field operations in post-conflict environments (Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Sudan and South Sudan). Samuel also served in West Africa (2010-2013) successively as Head of Political Affairs of the UN peacebuilding office in Guinea-Bissau and Deputy-Head of the Political section of the UN Office for West Africa.