In the next government, appointed on September 15, 2008 and headed by Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo, Gnininvi was moved to the position of Minister of State for Industry, Crafts, and Technological Innovations. He remained in that post for one year; on September 10, 2009, he resigned from the government, together with the other CDPA minister, Mensan Adowayom, so that the CDPA would not be tied to the government in the period preceding the 2010 presidential election.