Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, The First Female Minister Of Finance In Nigeria
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, The Nigerian-American Economist born was the first female Minister of Finance in Nigeria.
EDUCATION
She was born in 1954. She is a Nigerian-American economist and international development expert.
Okonjo-Iweala was born in Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, Nigeria, where her father, Professor, was the King from the Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Ukwu. She went to Queen's School, Enugu, St. Anne's School, Molete, Ibadan, and the International School Ibadan. She went to US in 1973 to study at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with an AB in Economics in 1976. she earned her PhD in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a thesis titled Credit policy, rural financial markets, and Nigeria's agricultural development.
LEADERSHIP AND CAREER
She received an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which supported her doctorate degree. She is married to Dr Ikemba Iweala, a neurosurgeon. They have four children, three sons and one daughter. She has spent 25 years at the World Bank as a development economist, scaling the ranks to the Number 2 position of Managing Director, Operations (2007–2011). She also served two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria (2003–2006, 2011–2015) under President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan, respectively.
She was the first woman to become the Finance Minister of Nigeria and the first woman to serve in the office twice. In 2005, Euromoney named her global finance minister of the year. After leaving government, Okonjo-Iweala was also a member of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (2015-2016), chaired by Gordon Brown, and the Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, which was established by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (2017-2018).
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Since 2014, she has co-chaired the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate. In January 2016, Ngozi was appointed the Chair-elect of the Board of Gavi (vaccine alliance). She is the founder of Nigeria’s first indigenous opinion-research organization, NOI-Polls. She founded the Center for the Study of Economies of Africa (C-SEA), a development research think tank based in Abuja, Nigeria of Nigeria.
Okonjo-Iweala has been part of UNESCO's International Commission on the Futures of Education since 2019 and she has served on the High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development of the Aspen Management Partnership for Health (AMP Health). International Monetary Fund's Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva appointed her to an external advisory group to provide input on policy challenges in 2020 and was appointed by the African Union (AU) as a special envoy to solicit international support to help the continent confront the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nigeria nominated Okonjo-Iweala as the country’s candidate to be director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2020. She later advanced to the election's final round. Ahead of the vote, she received the backing of the European Union for her candidacy. During her campaign to become the next Director-General of the WTO, it was revealed that Okonjo-Iweala became a US citizen in 2019 after spending several decades working and studying in the United States. Given the ongoing trade tensions between China and the US, analysts commented that the disclosure would contribute to shaping China’s attitude towards her.
She was appointed as co-chair of the High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, which the G20 had established in early 2021
