The World Bank yesterday appointed Nigeria’s former finance and foreign affairs minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a Managing Director in charge of Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia Regions. She will also have oversight responsibility for human resources.
Okonjo-Iweala, whose app-ointment takes effect from December 1, will join Managing Directors Juan Jose Daboub and Graeme Wheeler, Executive Vice Presidents Lars Thunell (IFC) and Yukiko Omura (MIGA), and Chief Financial Officer Vincenzo La Via at the top level of World Bank Group (WBG) management.
World Bank President, Mr. Robert B. Zoellick, who announced the appointment yesterday, remarked that Okonjo-Iweala’s commitment to the developing world was unparalleled, noting: "Ngozi brings a unique set of skills and experience to the World Bank Group.”
According to him, as an outstanding Minister of Finance and Foreign Minister in Nigeria, Ngozi helped lead the country's reform programme on issues of fiscal prudence, transparency of government accounts, good governance, and anti-corruption.
He said she led Nigeria’s quest for debt relief and helped her country obtain an unprecedented US$18 billion write-off from the Paris Club.
Ngozi was also instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever Sovereign Credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. She is an internationally respected world leader. In addition, she knows the WBG well from her 21 years of service.
“Her commitment to the developing world is unparalleled. I am delighted she has accepted to join my senior team,” he said.
Before her eventful years as the country’s finance minister, Okonjo-Iweala served in a number of important positions at the World Bank including Vice President and Corporate Secretary, Director of Operations in the Middle East and North Africa region, and Country Director for the South East Asia and Mongolia Country unit. She joined the World Bank in 1982.
Okonjo-Iweala, is the Founder of NOI-Gallup polls, an indigenous Nigerian opinion research organization, and co-founder of the Makeda Fund – a fund to invest in African women entrepreneurs. She is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
From 2003-2006, she served as Finance Minister and subsequently Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria.
As Finance Minister, Okonjo-Iweala led Nigeria’s Economic Team responsible for implementing the Obasanjo administration’s far-reaching economic and social reform agenda. The reforms made particular progress in restoring macroeconomic stability, tripling growth, initiating a strong fight against corruption, and increasing transparency.
Accepting the appointment, Okonjo-Iweala said: “I am delighted to be coming back, and I welcome the opportunity to work through this great institution to make a difference in the lives of our youth, and our hardworking men and women in the developing world. I particularly look forward to working with President Zoellick as he maps out exciting new paths for the World Bank Group.”
She is a member or chair of numerous boards and advisory groups in the public, private and non-governmental sectors including DATA, the World Resources Institute, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nelson Mandela Institution and the African Institutes of Science and Technology, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Governance Prize Committee, Friends of the Global Fund Africa. She is also an adviser to the World Bank on the Stolen Assets Recovery (STAR) initiative, and served as a member of the Malan Committee on Bank-Fund collaboration.
Okonjo-Iweala graduated with an A.B. magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard University, and holds a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology.
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