PARIS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The French government on Wednesday for the first time ever appointed an immigrant as a provincial governor.

    Pierre N'Gahane, who was born in Cameroon and moved to France to attend school in the 1980s, has been named governor of Alpes deHaute-Provence province.

    N'Gahane, who became a teacher and obtained French citizenship after school, in January 2007 was named a province-level official in charge of promoting racial equality by then-Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy, now the president of France.

    France has 96 provinces, and provincial governors are nominated by the interior minister and need to be ratified by the Cabinet.