Why You Should #BeLikeNgozi

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished Nigerians in public service.

On June 5th, the journey to becoming the Director-General of Geneva-based World Trade Organization, WTO, began for Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former two-time Minister of Finance/Foreign Affairs and Managing Director (Operations) of the World Bank alongside eight others. In the first round, three of the candidates fell out leaving her along with four others to proceed to the next stage of voting. In the second stage, three candidates also fell out leaving her and South Korea’s Trade Minister, Yoo Myung-Hee as the final candidates contesting for the Director of the World Trade Organization following the resignation of Roberto Azevedo. Based on trends, we came up with reasons you should #BeLikeNgozi.

Minister of Finance

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala started her career as a Development Economist in World Bank before holding the post of Corporate Secretary and Vice President. Under President Obasanjo’s reign, she was appointed Nigeria’s first female Finance Minister (2003-2006) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (June 2006 – August 2006). During that time, she;

• Boosted Nigeria’s credit rating from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s.
• Empowered Nigeria’s youth through Youth Enterprise with Innovation Program (YouWIN). A platform to create jobs and support entrepreneurs.
• Empowered Nigeria’s women through the Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria Program (GWIN).
• Closed a deal with the Paris Club wiping out US$30billion of Nigerian’s debt
• Improved macroeconomics management of Nigeria including implementation of an oil-price-based fiscal rule.
• Initiated the practice of publishing the federal government’s monthly allocation of each state in newspapers to promote transparency and accountability.
• With support from World Bank and IMF, an electronic financial management platform that helped in eliminating many ghost workers in the system; thus saving the Nigerian government a huge sum of money was built.

Under President Jonathan (2011-2015), she was reappointed as Nigeria’s Finance Minister.

5 More Reasons to #BeLikeNgozi

• Founded NOI Polls, Nigeria’s first indigenous opinion research organization in 2006.
• Former Chairman, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company PLC, World Bank’s Development Committee and Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.
• Appointed as an independent non-executive director at Standard Chartered PLC in July 2017 and to Twitter’s Board of Directors in July 2018.
• Served on the advisory boards of the Clinton Global Initiative and the ONE Foundation.
• Past member of International Monetary and Finance Committee of the IMF, the United Nations’ Secretary General’s High-Level Panel, the Danish Government Led Commission on Africa, the Commission on World Growth, and the World Economic Forum Global Leadership Council.