Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been named the most powerful woman in Africa on Forbes.
According to Forbes’ 20th annual ranking released on Tuesday, the former Nigerian coordinating minister of the economy was ranked the 87th Most Powerful Women in the World list.
Forbes list of the world’s most powerful women is about women who have performed excellently well in various fields.
Okonjo-Iweala, in March 2021, became the first woman and the first African to serve as WTO director general.
Other African women who made the top 100 world list are South African businesswoman, Mpumi Madisa at 88th, Tanzanian President, Samia Hassan, at the 93rd spot and Nigerian media mogul and philanthropist, Mo Abudu at 98th.
The Forbes Most Powerful Women in the World list showcased a diverse array of influential figures, spanning CEOs, entertainers, politicians, philanthropists, and policymakers.
Born June 13, 1954, in Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, where her father, Chukwuka Okonjo, was the Obi (king) of the Obahai royal family of Ogwashi-Ukwu, she was educated at Queen’s School, Enugu; St. Anne’s School, Molete, Ibadan, Oyo State; and the International School, Ibadan. She arrived in the US in 1973 to study at Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude with an AB in Economics in 1976.
She earned a Master’s degree in city planning in 1978 and her PhD in regional economics and development in 1981 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the thesis, Credit policy, rural financial markets, and Nigeria’s agricultural development.
She received an international fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which supported her doctoral studies
Okonjo-Iweala had a 25-year career at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., as a development economist and rose to the No.2 position of Managing Director, Operations.[26] As managing director, she had oversight responsibility for the World Bank’s $81 billion operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia, Europe, and Central Asia. Okonjo-Iweala spearheaded several World Bank initiatives to assist low-income countries during the 2008–2009 food crises and later during the financial crisis. In 2010, she was the chair person of the IDA replenishment, the World Bank’s successful drive to raise $49.3 billion in grants and low-interest credit for the poorest countries in the world.
During her time at the World Bank, she was also a member of the Commission on Effective Development Cooperation with Africa, which was set up by Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and held meetings between April and October 2008.
Okonjo-Iweala was the first woman to serve two terms as finance minister of Nigeria; initially, under former president Olusegun Obasanjo from 2003 to 2006; and secondly, under former president Goodluck Jonathan from 2011 to 2015. Subsequently, from June to August 2006, she served as minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. In 2005, Euromoney named her Global Finance Minister of the Year.
During her first term as finance minister in the administration of Obasanjo, she spearheaded negotiations with the Paris Club that led to the wiping out of US$30 billion of Nigeria’s debt, including the outright cancellation of US$18 billion.
In 2003, she led efforts to improve Nigeria’s macro-economic management, including the implementation of an oil price-based fiscal rule. Revenues accruing above a reference benchmark oil price were saved in a special account, the “Excess Crude Account,” which helped to reduce macro-economic volatility.
Okonjo-Iweala was also instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor’s in 2006.
She also introduced the practice of publishing the federal, state, and local government shares of revenue from the country’s federal account. That action went a long way in increasing transparency in governance at all levels of government, particularly the sub-national level.
Her legacy includes strengthening the country’s public financial systems and stimulating the housing sector with the establishment of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Corporation in 2013.
Under her leadership, the National Bureau of Statistics carried out a re-basing exercise of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the first in 24 years, which saw Nigeria emerge as the largest economy in Africa.
She also empowered women and youths with the Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria Programme, a gender-responsive budgeting system and the highly acclaimed Youth Enterprise with Innovation Programme; to support entrepreneurs, that created thousands of jobs.
As part of Jonathan’s administration, she received death threats and endured the kidnapping of her mother when she tried to sanitise Nigeria’s fuel subsidy payments to some marketers in 2012.
In addition to her role in government, Okonjo-Iweala served on the commission on Growth and Development (2006–2009), led by Nobel Prize winner, Michael Spence. She was a member of the International Monetary and Finance Committee of the IMF (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and the United Nations’ Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (2012–2013). She also co-chaired the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation with UK Secretary, Justine Greening.
In 2012, she was a candidate for president of the World Bank, running against former Colombian finance minister, Jose Antonio Ocampo, and Dartmouth College President, Jim Yong Kim; if elected, she would have become the organisation’s first female president.
Okonjo-Iweala has received numerous recognition and awards. She has been listed as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (Fortune, 2015), the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World (TIME, 2014 and 2021), the Top 100 Global Thinkers (Foreign Policy, 2011 and 2012), the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World (Forbes, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2022), the 25 Most Influential Women in the World (Financial Times, 2021), the Top 3 Most Powerful Women in Africa (Forbes, 2012), the Top 10 Most Influential Women in Africa (Forbes, 2011), the Top 100 Women in the World (The Guardian, 2011), the Top 150 Women in the World (Newsweek, 2011), the Top 100 most inspiring people in the World Delivering for Girls and Women (Women Deliver, 2011). She was listed among 73 “brilliant” business influencers in the world by Condé Nast International.
In 2019, Okonjo-Iweala was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She was also conferred High National Honours from the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and the Republic of Liberia. She was also the recipient of Nigeria’s second highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON, 2022) and Nigeria’s third highest National Honours Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). She also received the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco from the Federative Republic of Brazil in 2023
She sits on boards of: Danone, Standard Chartered Bank, MINDS: Mandela Institute for Development Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, One Campaign, GAVI: Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, Rockefeller Foundation, R4D: Results for Development, ARC: African Risk Capacity and Earthshot Prize plus others.