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Woman Crush Sunday(WCS): Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

This is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She is an economist and International development expert from Ogwashi-ukwu of Delta State,Nigeria. She was born on the 12th of June 1954 to a royal family. She is married to Dr. Ikemba Iweala, a Neuro-surgeon and they are blessed with four children. We were told in school that what a man can do, a woman can do better, this is a true definition of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

 For her secondary education, she attended Queens school, Enugu, then proceeded to Harvard University to study Economics, She earned her P.H.D in regional economics and development from Massachusetts institute of Technology.

 Okonjo-Iweala's career in World Bank lasted  for 25 years, she started as a development economist then she rose to the (no.2) position as the Managing Director of World Bank in 2007; during these times, she spearheaded several world bank initiatives such as the IDA replenishment. She served  twice as Nigeria's finance Minister between 2011-2015 and as Minister of Foreign affairs between 2003 - 2006, during her tenure as a minister she spearheaded negotiations with the Pan's club, she led efforts to improve Nigeria's macro economic management, she was also very instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain it's first ever sovereign credit rating. In 2011, as the Minister of Finance of Nigeria, she helped strengthen Nigeria's public financial system, she empowered Nigerian women and youth in Nigeria's programme, She took a lot of heat for the fuel subsidy removal policy by the Nigerian government in 2012, this added to her absence from  political affairs of Nigeria for some time. 

Since 2019, Ngozi has been part of (UNESCO'S) International commission on the Futures of Education, she was also appointed by the African Union (AU) as special envoy to solicit international support for the continental fight against COVID-19.

Currently, Okonjo- Iweala is the Co-chair of the global commission for  Economy and climate with Nicholas Stern and Paul Polman. Recently in June this year, President Buhari nominated Okonjo-Iweala as the country's candidate to be director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and she has made it to the final round, this is good news for Nigeria, this is good news for Africa.

Other activities done by her both internationally and locally, both for profit and non-profit Include:

. Member of the International advisory board, International Cooperation Agency (Japan) since 2016

. Member of the board,Tax Inspectors without borders

.Board of directors, Twitter since 2018

. Member ofCarnegie Endowment for International peace

. Member of Rockfeller foundation amongst others.

She has international recognised awards such as : 50 greatest World leaders ( Fortune, 2015)

.100 most influential people in the world (TIME, 2014) and many more. She has also received honorary degrees from 14 universities worldwide namely:

.University of Pennsylvania (2013)

.Yale University (2015)

. Amherst College (2009)

. Trinity College, Dublin (2007)

.Abia State University, Nigeria

.Delta State University, Nigeri

.University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria and many more. 

She is known for this phrase; "Do not trivialise Corruption". Currently, her net-worth is said to be about 502 billion dollars. Ngozi is an epitome of success. You can be this and more. Just take a step...

Comments

Tulehope said…
She's an inspiration proving that no height in life is unattainable as a woman
October 12, 2020 at 3:44 PM
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