Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (born June 13, 1954) was appointed in July 2011 as Nigeria’s “de facto prime minister” and the new Minister of Finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Prior to this appointment, she was the Managing Director of World Bank (October 2007 – July 2011) and has also held the position of a finance minister and foreign minister between 2003 and 2006. She is notable for being the first woman to hold either of those positions. She served as finance minister from July 2003 until her appointment as foreign minister in June 2006, and as foreign minister until her resignation in August 2006. Okonjo-Iweala was considered as a possible replacement for former World Bank President. She was the finance minister of Nigeria, July 2003-june 2006, foreign minister June 2006-August 3,2006presently the finance minister and coordinating minister on economy.
Education and personal life
Okonjo-Iweala is an igbo from Ogwashi-Ukwu in Delta state where her father Professor Chukuka Okonjo is the Obi, or King, from the Umu Obi Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Ukwu.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard University, graduating with an A.B. in 1977, and earned her Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT). She is married to her husband Ikemba Iweala from umuahia Abia state .
Career
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the 2004 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group
Prior to her ministerial career in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala was vice-president and corporate secretary of the World Bank Group. She left it in 2003 after she was appointed to President Obasanjo’s cabinet as Finance Minister on 15 July.
In October 2005, she led the Nigerian team that struck a deal with the Paris Club, a group of bilateral creditors, to pay a portion of Nigeria’s external debt (US $12 billion) in return for an $18 billion debt write-off. Prior to the partial debt payment and write-off, Nigeria spent roughly US $1 billion every year on debt servicing, without making a dent in the principal owed.
Okonjo-Iweala also introduced the practice of publishing each state‘s monthly financial allocation from the federal government in the newspapers. She was instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. Nigeria is considered to have defaulted on its sovereign debt in 1983 (debt rescheduling is considered a type of default by rating agencies).
She resigned as Nigeria’s Foreign Minister on August 3, 2006 following her sudden removal as head of Nigeria’s Economic Intelligence team by President Olusegun Obasanjo. She left office at the end of August 2006.
On October 4, 2007, World Bank President Robert Zoellick appointed her to the post of Managing Director, effective December 1, 2007.
During her confirmation as a Minister, she stressed the need to reduce the country’s recurrent expenditure which is presently 74% of the National Budget and embark on capital projects which could improve the 14% unemployment rate in the country. One of the conditions she gave to the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, was an additional power to influence/exercise power over the economic team. This power includes the appointment of credible and proven staff to head departments and ministries under her portfolio.
Non-profit work
In 2007, Okonjo-Iweala’s NGO, NOI Global Consulting, partnered with the Gallup Organization to introduce an opinion poll, the NOI poll, into the Nigerian polity. She is a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Okonjo-Iweala also serves on the Advisory Board of Global Financial Integrity and on the Board of Directors of the World Resources Institute
Honors and awards
- Time Europe Hero 2004
- This Day Nigeria Minister of the Year 2004
- Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the year 2005
- Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister 2005
- Nigerian of the Year 2006.
- Honorary Doctorate from Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
- Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland.
- Honorary Doctorate from Colby College, Maine, USA.
- Honorary Doctorate from Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville, Jamaica.
- Honorary Doctorate from Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA.
Additionally, on September 28, 2007, Irish musician Bono was awarded the Liberty Medal. Bono donated the $100,000 prize to the Washington-based Debt AIDS Trade Africa, which he co-founded, and Okonjo-Iweala accepted the award on the organization’s behalf.
Politics
Okonjo-Iweala has not expressed interest to contest political office in Nigeria in the current election circa 2011. However, from her vast expertise in World Economic circles and with a keen understanding of economic realities in developing countries (having served as a distinguished Minister in the Nigerian government), she has been vocal in her denunciation of the manner in which the country is currently accumulating huge debts. Indeed the current presidential aspirants have been called upon to adopt or develop an Economic Action Plan that can be endorsed by notable economic experts like Okonjo-Iweala. It is not easy to make the transition from being a political appointee to running for an actual political office in Nigeria.
