Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Abuja, Abuja Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a globally renowned economist known for her role in the World bank and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
She is an Igbo from Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, where her father Professor Chukwuka Okonjo is the Eze (King) from the Umuobi Royal Family of Ogwashi-Ukwu.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was educated at the International School Ibadan and Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with an AB in 1977, and earned her PhD in regional economic development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981. She received an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) that supported her doctoral studies. She is married to Ikemba Iweala from Umuahia, Abia State, and they have four children. The eldest, Onyinye Iweala received her PhD in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University in 2008 and graduated Harvard Medical School in 2010. Her son, Uzodinma Iweala, is the author of the novel Beasts of No Nation (2005) and the newly released thoughts on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa [Our Kind of People] (2012).
In 2011, She was appointed as the new Minister of Finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In a previous role, she served as the Managing Director of World Bank (October 2007 - July 2011) and has also held the position of a Finance Minister and Foreign Minister of Nigeria, between 2003 and 2006.
She is notable for being the first woman to hold either of those positions, serving as finance minister from July 2003 until her appointment as foreign minister in June 2006, and as foreign minister until her resignation in August 2006.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala led the Nigerian team that struck a deal with the Paris Club, a group of bilateral creditors, to pay a portion of Nigeria's external debt (US $12 billion) in return for an $18 billion debt write-off.
She also introduced the practice of publishing each state's monthly financial allocation from the federal government in the newspapers. She was instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor's.