#BTAfricanAwarenessMonth – Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Jweala: A lady of firsts

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian economist who, on March 3, 2021, was sworn in as the first woman and first African director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). She was also the longest-serving finance minister in the government of Nigeria and has headed initiatives prioritising the economies of low-income countries at the World Bank.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was born on June 13, 1954 in Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, Nigeria. She studied at Nigeria’s oldest girls’ secondary school and travelled to the US to study at Harvard University as a teenager (1973). She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor’s in economics (1976) and later earned her Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981. Since then, she has been awarded 15 honorary degrees from other institutions around the world. After receiving her doctoral degree, Okonjo-Iweala served for twenty-five years in the World Bank where she rose to the number two position as managing director of operations. In that post, she supervised development projects and portfolios in Europe, Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia.

Okonjo-Iweala made history in Nigeria after being appointed the first woman and longest-serving Finance Minister of Nigeria. She was first appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo (2003-2006) and again by President Goodluck Jonathan (2011-2015). She also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between her two terms. During her time in government, Okonjo-Iweala sought to bring about reforms that increased fiscal transparency in government and reduced corruption by publishing government distributions to different departments and local offices on the finance ministry website and in newspapers. In 2005, she led negotiations with the Paris Club, an assembly of the world’s most developed nations, which led to the restructuring of 30 billion dollars of external debt owned by Nigeria as well as the outright cancellation of 18 billion dollars of debt. When Okonjo-Iweala was serving her second term under President Jonathan, she received death threats and suffered the kidnapping of her mother (who was later released by kidnappers). Despite this adversity, due to her reform programmes and work as finance minister, Okonjo-Iweala is credited with helping grow the Nigerian economy, which has recently overtaken South Africa as the largest economy in Africa.

Okonjo-Iweala has written or co-written six books, including Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons co-authored with Julia Gillard (Penguin Random House, July 2020), Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines (MIT Press, 2018), Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria, (MIT Press, 2012), and The Debt Trap in Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Debt Strategy (Africa World Press, 2003). She has authored numerous works on development and finance.

She has been featured on Forbes magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women in the World for four straight years and was recognised by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

She is also the recipient of several awards, including In 2023, she was awarded the Lord Byron International Prize from the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism, the Global Economy Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and the 2022 Laureate Prize of Ambassadors from the International Organisation of La Francophonie. In 2022, she obtained the Global Leadership Award from the American Academy of Achievement. In 2021, she received a Global Leadership Award from the United Nations Foundation as a “Champion for Global Change”.

Okonjo-Iweala is the seventh Director-General of the WTO. In her position, she is a spokesperson for the WTO and is instrumental in facilitating trade negotiations and settling disputes between member nations. Her term of office will end on August 31, 2025.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is married to neurosurgeon Dr Ikemba Iweala. They have four children and five grandchildren.

(Sources: www.blackpast.org and www.wto.org)