Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been named one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by the American magazine, Fortune.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, listed 33rd, was recognized alongside such world leaders as the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, U.S. billionaire, Bill Gates, and wife, Melinda, as well as Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple Chief Executive Officer, Tom Cook.
Here is what the magazine says about her: ‘A magna cum laude Harvard graduate who holds a Ph.D. from MIT, Okonjo-Iweala has helped usher in a GDP-trebling decade of Nigerian prosperity. “She is a fearless promoter of sound economic policies,” says Witney Schneidman, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs. No wonder Nigeria’s two-term finance minister—and first woman in the role— has been considered a top contender to run the World Bank one day’.
In compiling the 2015 list, the magazine said it received advice from more than 24 world leaders, who adjudged the honourees from their professional domains, industries or governance as worthy of the recognition.
On the criteria required to make the roster of winners, the magazine said, “It was not enough to be brilliant, admirable or even supremely powerful”, but “to find singular leaders with vision who moved others to act as well, and who brought their followers with them on a shared quest. We looked out for effectiveness and commitment and for the courage to pioneer”.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, a former Managing Director of The World Bank Group between December 2007 and August 2011, graduated from Harvard University in 1976. She holds a Ph.D in Development Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The list includes such people as Pope Francis, Taylor Swift among others.
