Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Wins Forbes 'African Of The Year' Award 2020

 

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former minister of finance for Nigeria, has helped the country's economy, the largest in Africa, grow an average of 6% (per annum) over three years. She is credited with developing reform programs that helped improve governmental transparency and stabilizing the economy. 

Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman to be the finance minister and the foreign minister of the West African country with a GDP of $502 billion. But the start of the year has been difficult for Nigeria. The country voted in former general Muhammadu Buhari as president, ousting long-time President Goodluck Jonathan, with the hope he will help fight against the local terrorist group Boko Haram. The Harvard- and M.I.T.-trained Okonjo-Iweala spent 21 years as a development economist at the World Bank.