Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Becomes First Nigerian Woman To Win Forbes African Person Of The Year
- Anu
- December 2, 2020
- News
- Forbes Africa-CNBC award, forbes african person of the year, Okonjo-Iweala Wins Forbes African Person Of The Year 2020
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Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance and the prime candidate for the World Trade Organization DG job, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has emerged Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2020.
She becomes the first Nigerian woman to win the award.
The 2020 #AfricanOftheYear Award honoree is…
Congratulations to Dr. @NOlweala! Board Chair @Gavi; Board Chair @ARCapicity, gracing the cover of @forbesafrica pic.twitter.com/hlcCDHEMx2
— Forbes Africa (@forbesafrica) December 1, 2020
Reacting to the news, Okonjo-Iweala, expressed her delight at the recognition and dedicated the award to Africans facing the health and socio-economic challenges of COVID-19 during a very difficult year.
“It is a great honour to serve Africa in different capacities. I look forward to deploying my energies at the WTO for Africa and the world,” she said.
The award is coming weeks after David Walker, the chair of the general council of the WTO and Facilitators of the process for the appointment of the DG formally submitted her name as the best candidate to be DG.
Okonjo-Iweala emerged the overwhelming choice of WTO member-countries following a keenly contested race in which she got the majority support of the 164 member countries.
The Forbes Africa-CNBC award is the latest honour clinched by the multi-award-winning development economist, one of the African Union (AU) Special Envoys appointed to mobilize international support for Africa’s efforts to address the COVID-19 economic fallout.
