Director General, World Trade Organization
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). She is an economist and international development expert with over 30 years of experience. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016 – 2020), the African Risk Capacity (2014 – 2020) and Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor at Lazard and sat on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as an AU COVID-19 Special Envoy and WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister (2003-2006, 2011-2015), the first woman to hold the position, and spent a 25-year career at the World Bank rising to the No.2 position of Managing Director.
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BY: Ajoa Yeboah-Afari
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At long last, on February 15, the long awaited, historic announcement came from the World Trade Organization: “The General Council agreed by consensus to select Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria as the seventh Director-General.”
Dr Okonjo-Iweala, is the first woman and the first African to be appointed to that position.
On March 1, she begins her four-year, renewable tenure in Geneva, Switzerland, with the organization which deals with global rules of trade between nations.
The following are excerpts from Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s very long, awe-inspiring biography:
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Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a global finance expert, an economist and international development professional with over 30 years of experience working in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America.
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has become the first woman and first African to head the World Trade Organisation (WTO). ENIOLA OYEMOLADE in this piece discusses how she became the head of the Switzerland-based institution, her plans, among others.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been appointed the new chief of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) becoming the first woman to ever lead the Switzerland-based institution and the first African citizen to take on the role.
This is not the first time Okonjo-Iweala will be making history.
She was the first woman to take on the Nigerian finance ministry and the foreign ministry after she graduated from Harvard University in 1976 and then earned a PhD from MIT. Okonjo-Iweala was also the first female to run for the World Bank presidency where she spent 25 years.