Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (born 1954) is the former Finance Minister and later, Foreign Minister of Nigeria. the first woman to hold either of these positions. She served as finance minister from July 2003 until her appointment as foreign minister in June 2006. At the time, she was one of only three female finance ministers in the world. She was instrumental in negotiating the closing of Nigeria’s debt to the Paris Club (see country achievements). Okonjo-Iweala is a former World Bank vice president who graduated from Harvard and earned a Ph.D. in regional economics and development at MIT. The Guardian Newspaper in the UK said of her: “Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a heroine not just of Nigeria, but of the entire continent”.