Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is one of three managing directors of the World Bank and is the first woman from Africa to serve in that high position. On Tuesday night she delivered a speech at the Central Bank in commemoration of the late local economist William Demas. Okonjo-Iweala outlined the many opportunities available in the Caribbean if it managed to address its debt problems and maintain the macro-economic policies of some of the more successful economies in the world. She recently chaired a historic replenishment of US$49.3 billion for the International Development Association (IDA). The IDA is an arm of the World Bank which provides grants and interest-free loans to the world's poorest nations. Okonjo-Iweala, whose position includes special oversight for the bank's operations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South Asia and Africa, has been at the forefront of the World Bank's efforts to help countries hard hit by the food, fuel and financial crisis.
The World Bank head, who was educated at Harvard University, and has a doctorate in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came to Trinidad at the invitation of the Central Bank to deliver last Tuesday's William G Demas Memorial Lecture. Between 2003 and 2006, she served as finance minister of Nigeria and later as foreign affairs minister. As finance minister, she led negotiations with the Paris Club of Creditors in 2005, which resulted in the wiping out of US$30 billion of Nigeria's external debt. Those negotiations also included outright cancellation of US$18 billion. A World Bank biography of Okonjo-Iweala stated: "In a crucial step in the battle against corruption, Dr Okonjo-Iweala opened the government finances to public scrutiny, by publishing federal monthly financial allocations to the states and local governments in the newspapers."
On leaving the Nigerian government, Okonjo-Iweala joined the Brooking Institution, a non-profit public policy organisation based in Washington, DC, as a distinguished visiting fellow from 2006-2007.
Before becoming managing director of the World Bank, Okonjo-Iweala had a 21-year career as a development economist at the World Bank, where she held the post of vice president and corporate secretary. During the East Asian financial crisis, Okonjo-Iweala was country director for Malaysia, Mongolia, Laos and Cambodia. She has also been director of operations in the Middle East, director of institutional change and strategy, when she assisted with implementing the World Bank's reform agenda. Okonjo-Iweala is the co-founder of the Makeda Fund, a US$50 million private equity fund to invest in women-owned small and medium enterprises in Africa. She also founded the Centre for the Study of Economics (C-SEA), a development research think tank based in Abuja, Nigeria.
Among Okonjo-Iweala awards are:
• Time magazine's European Hero of the Year 2004
• Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the Year, 2005
• One of Forbes magazine's 100 most powerful women in the world in 2006
She has also been profiled by Conde Nast International Business Intelligence Magazine as one of 73 brilliant business influencers in the world.