AFRIPOL.ORG IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
PRESS RELEASE 10/12/07
Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Bags Afripol Achievement Award: OUTSTANDING CITIZEN OF NIGERIA.
THE Board of Directors and Management of Afripol Organization ( Africa Political & Economic Strategic Center) have awarded the Honorable Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Afripol Achievement Award - OUTSTANDING CITIZEN OF NIGERIA.
Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a distinguished and acclaimed economist is a visionary and a first-rate intellectual. She is pragmatic, problem solver and a builder. Her outstanding achievements as a former Nigerian minister of finance, has propelled her to greater heights and was recently named Managing Director of World Bank.
Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a role model to Africans and citizens of our globe. The least Afripol Organization could do is to acknowledge this extra-ordinary and distinguished human being with a powerful mind, in her endeavors to restore the dignity of our collective humanity.
ABOUT Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was recently named Managing Director of World Bank to resume duty from December 2007. But before the appointment, she is a Distinguished Fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.
From June to August 2006, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, overseeing Nigeria’s External Relations. From July 2003 to June 2006 she served as Minister of Finance and Economy of Nigeria and Head of Nigeria's much acclaimed Presidential Economic team. Her achievements as Finance Minister garnered international recognition for improving Nigeria’s financial stability and fostering greater fiscal transparency to combat corruption. In October 2005, she led the Nigerian team that negotiated the cancellation of $18 billion of Nigeria’s external debt with the Paris club.
She pursued a 21-year career as a development economist at the World Bank, where she held the post of Vice President and Corporate Secretary. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard and has a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has received
numerous awards, including an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brown University in 2006, European Time Magazine Hero of the Year award in 2004 for her work on economic reform in Nigeria and Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the year 2005. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is a member of numerous boards and advisory groups, including the Clinton Global Initiative, DATA, the World Resources Institute, the Nelson Mandela Institution, and the African Institute of Science and Technology. She serves as financial adviser to several international investment groups working in emerging markets.