Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been named Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2020.
Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s first female minister of finance and the prime candidate for the office of the director-general of the World Trade Organisation, joins a list of eminent Africans to have received the award.
In 2019, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), won the award for his outstanding work at the bank and a sterling career in agriculture and finance.
Paul Kagame of Rwanda won the same award 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.
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.