Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala took office as WTO Director-General on March 1, 2021.
Personal and professional profile
- Name
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala [1]
- Birth date
- 1954-06-13; 1954 [2]
- Birthplace
- Ogwashi-Uku [2]
- Education
- Harvard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; International School Ibadan; MIT School of Architecture and Planning [2]
- Professional field
- International trade [1]
- Fields / occupation
- finance minister; financial manager; bank manager; politician; minister; diplomat [2]
- Institutions in career record
- World Bank Group [2]
Research, education and career background
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (, Igbo pronunciation: [ŋ́gɔ́zí òkóꜜńdʒó ìwáàːlà] ; born 13 June 1954) is a Nigerian economist who has been serving as the director-general of the World Trade Organization since March 2021. She is the first ever woman and also the first African to lead the World Trade Organization as director-general. [3]
She was previously on the boards of Danone, Standard Chartered Bank, MINDS: Mandela Institute for Development Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, One Campaign, GAVI: Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, Rockefeller Foundation, R4D: Results for Development, ARC: African Risk Capacity and Earthshot Prize plus others. She also previously sat on the Twitter Board of Directors, and stepped down in February 2021 in connection with her appointment as director-general of the World Trade Organization. [3]
Okonjo-Iweala serves at the Brookings Institution as a non-resident distinguished fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative in their Global Economy and Development Program. She is a Commissioner Emeritus and Co-Chair of Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. At the World Bank, she had a 25-year career as a development economist; rising to become Managing Director for Operations from 2007 to 2011. Okonjo-Iweala was the first Nigerian woman to serve two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria; initially, under President Olusegun Obasanjo from 2003 to 2006; and secondly, under President Goodluck Jonathan from 2011 to 2015. Subsequently, from June to August 2006, she served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. In 2005, Euromoney named her Global Finance Minister of the Year. [3]
Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.
Professional role and career
She became the first woman and the first African to serve in that role. Her official WTO biography provides the basis for this profile. [1]
Source-supported connections
Frequently asked questions
What milestone did Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s WTO appointment represent?
She became the first woman and the first African to serve as WTO Director-General. [1]
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala connection map
Select a node to inspect the relationship and source.
Links retain their source-specific meaning. Award-time affiliations and links to related reading are not claims about current appointments or economic causation.
Sources and review dates
- Reference source ↗
- Wikidata background facts (CC0) ↗
- Wikipedia contributors — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.