Nigeria’s former finance minister, Okonjo-Iweala, has been named the Forbes African Person of the Year for 2020.
The former World Bank executive is first female minister of finance and the prime candidate for the office of the director-general of the World Trade Organisation. She now joins a list of eminent Africans in Forbes honours list.
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), won the award last year for his outstanding work at the bank and a sterling career in agriculture and finance.
Rwandan leader Paul Kagame won in 2018.
Other eminent Nigerians to have bagged the award are Muhammad Sanusi II (2011), former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; Aliko Dangote (2014), president of the Dangote Group.
Sanusi won the first edition of the award in 2011, Adesina has won the award twice — 2013 and 2019, while Okonjo-Iweala is also the first Nigerian woman to clinch the award.
While 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.
