NAN
Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, today bagged the African Finance Minister of the year award for her outstanding performance as a finance minister.
The award was presented to her by the African Investor Magazine on the sideline of the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala thanked the organisers for the award and described it as an absolute honour.
She called on all investors in Africa to join the fight against the deadly Ebola virus disease that is ravaging some countries in West Africa.
“What is happening in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra-Leone and the success we had in Nigeria and Senegal in containing this virus should not be allowed to set Africa back.
“You as private sector and friends of Africa need to send the message that we should not be so afraid of Ebola that we stigmatise the whole continent.
“I think that it is only with your own leadership, as African investors, that the rest of the world can see which way they should pass. So, I am really urging you to be ambassadors to the continent,” she said.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said that in spite of the challenges facing the continent, African leaders should sustain the successes recorded in the past.
These challenges, she said, include infrastructure, governance, poor education system, employment, corruption, among others.
Delta state born Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a two term minister of finance. She was appointed into President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet in July 15, 2003 but resigned on August 3, 2006 after she was suddenly moved to the ministry of foreign affairs.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala who is married to Dr. Ikemba Iweala from Abia State had the record of leading the team that negotiated the debt relief from the Paris Club for the Nigeria in 2005.
In the current administration, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala had been not just the minister of finance but also the coordinating minister of the economy.
