Amanda Gorman once stated “There is always light if we are brave enough to see it, if we are brave enough to see it”
We live in a continent, an Africa that has been neglected of its full potential, an Africa that has been abused. We neglect to see that we are the change we desire to see.
I love these quotes from Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
“Investing in women is smart economics, and investing in girls but catching them upstream is even smarter economics”
“I believe that when you find problems, you should find solutions”
Have we been neglecting to invest and carry the female folks along in the development of Economics in our country and Africa, we can just look at the Life of the investment in one lady has brought us.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is an international development leader and economist, born on 13th June 1954, in Ogwashi Ukwu in Delta State into a Royal family,
Her Father, Prof Chukwuka Okonjo was the Obi (King) from the Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-ukwu.
She was educated at Queen’s School, Enugu and the international School Ibadan and arrived in the United States as a teenager to study at Harvard University where she graduated Magna cum laude (a high level of distinction) in Economics, She is married to Dr Ikemba Iweala, a Neurosurgeon with 4 children and 3 grandchildren.
She earned her PhD in regional development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, She had a 25 year career at the World Bank in Washington DC as a development economist, rising to the No 2 position of managing Director operations.
She served twice as Nigeria’s finance minister under two regimes being the first woman to hold such position, she led the negotiations with Paris Club that wiped out 30 billion dollars out of Nigeria’s debt.
She introduced the practice of publishing each state’s monthly financial allocation from the Federal Government of Nigeria in the newspapers. This action went a long way in increasing transparency, she also introduced the Treasury Single Account to curtail corruption which saved Nigeria money amounting to over a billion naira
Because of her numerous actions to curtail corruption, She was threatened, insulted and her mother was kidnapped one time.
Looking at the bright side, she has received numerous recognition and awards from Fortune magazine, Forbes, Guardian, the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia, She is also a recipient of Nigeria’s Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) and has received honorary degrees from 14 Universities.
She is the first female and black candidate to contest for the presidency of the World Bank group in 2012 and Director General of WTO in 2020 and is a senior adviser at Lazard, sits on the Boards of Standard Chartered Plc and Twitter.
Time would fail me to mention
MrsMo Abudu,
Mrs Stella Okoli,
Mrs Folorunsho Alakija,
Mrs Bola Shagaya,
Mrs Ibukun Awosika,
Late Mrs Dora Akunyili, Mrs Hadiaza Bala Usman
Mrs Oby Ezekwesili
Mrs Aisha Yesufu
All these are women doing great in different sectors and industries. Probably we haven’t invested so much in the female gender
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