She is also likely to support female participation in global trade, having said that "greater efforts should be made to include women-owned enterprises in the formal sector. Okonjo-Iweala has said she can take hardship, having experienced Nigeria's brutal civil war during her teenage years, during which her family reportedly lost all their savings. I can sleep on the cold floor anytime," she told the BBC in an interview in When serving as Nigeria's finance minister, kidnappers demanded Okonjo-Iweala resign after taking her mother hostage.
She refused to comply and they ended up releasing her mother a few days later, the BBC reported. She has also been involved in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, being the African Union's special envoy on the matter. Okonjo-Iweala has been a board member of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — a public-private health partnership immunizing people in poorer countries. Skip Navigation. Previously, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala twice served as Nigeria's Finance Minister and and briefly acted as Foreign Minister in , the first woman to hold both positions.
She distinguished herself by carrying out major reforms which improved the effectiveness of these two Ministries and the functioning of the government machinery. She had a year career at the World Bank as a development economist, rising to the No. As a development economist and Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala steered her country through various reforms ranging from macroeconomic to trade, financial and real sector issues.
She is a firm believer in the power of trade to lift developing countries out of poverty and assist them to achieve robust economic growth and sustainable development. As Finance Minister, she was involved in trade negotiations with other West African countries and contributed to the overhaul of Nigeria's trade policy enabling it to enhance its competitiveness.
She has closely followed developments at the WTO, as she believes that a strengthened multilateral trading system is in the interests of all countries, particularly least developed and African countries.
Okonjo-Iweala made history in Nigeria after being appointed the first woman and longest serving Finance Minister of Nigeria. She also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between her two terms.
During this time in government, Okonjo-Iweala sought to bring about reforms that increased fiscal transparency in government and reduced corruption by publishing government distributions to different departments and local offices on the finance ministry website and in newspapers.
When Okonjo-Iweala was serving her second term under President Jonathan, she received death threats and suffered the kidnapping of her mother who was later released by kidnappers.
Despite this adversity, due to her reform programs and work as finance minister, Okonjo-Iweala is credited with helping grow the Nigerian economy, which has recently overtaken South Africa as the largest economy in Africa.
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