NGOZI OKONJOIWEALA
Born in 1954, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development expert. She spent a 25 year career at the World bank scaling the ranks to Number two position of Managing Director. She also served two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria 2003 - 2006 under President Olusegun Obasanjo and 2011 - 2015 under President Goodluck Jonathan.
Her primary education was at Queen’s school
Enugu, from there to St Annes’s School Ibadan and International School also in Ibadan.
She then proceeded to Harvard University where she studied Economics and graduated in 1976. She earned her Ph.D in Regional Economics and Development from Massachussets Institute of Tecnology. She also received an International Fellowship from the American Assosiation of University Women.
Iweala has received numerous recognitions and awards all over the world some of which include the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World (TIME), 50 Greatest World Leaders (Fortune 2015), the Top 100 Global Thinkers (Foreign Policy, 2011 and 2012), the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World (Forbes, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014), 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 100 Most inspiring people in the World Delivering for Girls and Women (Women Deliver, 2011).
This is just a tip of the iceberg as there are way too many other awards that have been bestowed upon her so it is safe to say she is definitely one of the most respected women of the world when it comes to her work and the global impact she has made on economies.
Her latest venture, vying as a candidate for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has assured member-countries that if given the job, she will rejuvenate WTO. According to her “The WTO DG has no direct decision-making authority. But the WTO DG can work to make things move along with influence and that influence can be proactive”. Being a woman of many firsts with her track record, one of them being a two-time Finance Minister in her country not to mention the intimidating measure of her success in various endeavors, Ngozi says no African or even a woman for that matter has become a DG of WTO which she feels should be acquired on merit not gender or origin.
With the emergence of the Covid 19 pandemic, she noted that many business enterprises, especially the smaller scale ones, have been badly affected by the pandemic and emphasized the importance of creating better and newer ways for business to survive in these times stating that they need adequate liquidity to keep their business going. Iweala voiced her concern about developing countries who have not or cannot make this achievement possible. She stated that one of her roles as a member of the African Union envoy is to find ways to facilitate resources to enable MSMEs sustain their businesses. “I think it is a very important sector and the WTO would work hard to make sure such types of enterprises are supported” she reiterated.
Ngozi believes that e-commerce and digital economy are tremendous and the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed this now, more than ever, as people are now doing so much more online.
Never has operating online been more proactive than this period of the pandemic. They are buying, trading and even schooling online amongst many other things. This, Ngozi believes is the new normal and the digital age has to be embraced by developing countries to progress and a way to take care of this need has to be addressed urgently by those who can make this happen.
Should she become the WTO DG, finding resources to address this problem will be top on her list of priorities by working together with multinationals institutions to help countries build infrastructures so
they
can work with e-commerce because this is the wave of the 21st century.
Ngozi is quick to concede that the world is yet to know the trajectory of the Corona virus and as such, stresses the need for the WTO to have a leader whose contribution in multilateral trading systems can begin to take effect as soon as possible which in return will contribute to the recovery of the world economy.
Ngozi also acknowledges that her experience at some global bodies has taught her ways in which to deal with the impact of a pandemic such as this. She also believes trade is crucial for a nation’s economic survival. According to her “Fair trade, through trade liberalization and exchange, is what nations, especially the economically vulnerable and weak nations need to keep up and running. There is no point pretending about this if the economically weak and vulnerable nations, who constitute the majority in the Global South, collapse, trade – the very essence of WTO – collapses.”
Iweala stresses that we should not be complacent about where Africa is as the number of cases is still doubling every two weeks and that is with very minimal testing. She acknowledges the pandemic’s impact on Africa and its people, and the difficult decisions facing governments trying to balance their population’s health with economic need. “Although the number of COVID-19 cases in Africa is quite low compared to other regions, the true extent of the pandemic’s impact remains unclear,” she says.
Still, she believes the crisis presents Africa with a chance to set new priorities and address a range of challenges in a new way. She emphasizes that Africa needs to re-strategize and use this as an opportunity to overcome the crisis and make many positive things happen - just like when life throws you lemons, you make lemonades.