Top Nigerian Women At The World Bank

The Whistler takes a look at women of Nigerian descent that have held top management positions at the World Bank.

Sandie Okoro, a British national, is currently the Global General Counsel for HSBC Global Asset Management. She is also Deputy General Counsel of HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management and a member of the Executive Management Committee of HSBC Global Asset Management.

Before joining HSBC, Okoro was Global General Counsel at Barings. She has also been appointed to the Management Board and Panel of Experts of The Hague-based Panel of Recognized International Market Experts in Finance, which assists with the settlement of international disputes of complex financial transactions. Okoro played a leadership role during the financial crisis particularly in respect to the mitigation of counterparty risk exposure.

Okoro has received several accolades for her work and volunteer efforts. Most recently, in July 2016, she was named as one of the 100 Women to Watch by the Female FTSE Board.

As World Bank Group Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Okoro will be the principal adviser and spokesperson on all legal matters. She will also serve as the legal adviser to the Board, management, the Inspection Panel, and the CEO of the Global Environmental Facility Program. Okoro will lead the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency, which is responsible for all legal services provided to internal and external clients.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (born 13 June 1954) is an Igbo Nigerian and a highly respected and influential global leader, economist, policy maker and thinker on Finance and Economic Development.

She has been listed 5 years consecutively as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes Magazine and in 2013 was listed as one of the Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine.

In 2015, she was also listed as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders by Fortune.

She served two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria (2003-2006, 2011-2015) and was previously Managing Director of the World Bank (2007-2011).

She currently chairs the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the African Risk Capacity (ARC). She is also a Senior Adviser at Lazard.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is renowned as the first female and black candidate to contest for the presidency of the World Bank Group in 2012.

Obiageli Ezekwesili is a Nigerian chartered accountant. She was a co-founder of Transparency International, serving as one of the pioneer directors of the global anti-corruption body based in Berlin, Germany.

She served as Federal Minister of Solid Minerals and then as Federal Minister of Education during the second-term presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. Since then, she served as the Vice-President of the World Bank’s Africa division from May 2007 to May 2012,

Ezekwesili holds a master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, as well as a Master of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She trained with the firm of Deloitte and Touche and qualified as a chartered accountant.

Prior to working for the Government of Nigeria, Ezekwesiili was working with Professor Jeffrey Sachs at the Center for International Development at Harvard.

Arunma Oteh is the Treasurer and Vice President of the World Bank. She became the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Nigeria in January 2010.

In this position she was responsible for regulation of Nigeria’s capital markets, including the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

In July 2015, after her tenure in the SEC, she was appointed the vice president and treasurer of the World Bank.

Oteh is from Abia State. She studied at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, earning a first class honors degree in Computer Science. She went on to the Harvard Business School where she obtained a Masters Degree in Business Administration. She co-edited the book, African Voices African Visions.

Oteh worked for various institutions including the Harvard Institute for International Development and Centre Point Investments Limited of Nigeria in corporate finance, consulting, teaching and research. She joined the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 1992.

She was a Senior Investment Officer/Senior Capital Markets Officer from 1993 to 1997, then Division Manager Investments and Trading Room from 1997 to 2001 when she was appointed the Bank’s Group Treasurer responsible for fund raising and investments in major international capital markets.

Oteh was appointed Vice-President for Corporate Management at the ADB in March 2006, responsible for Language Services, General Services and Procurement, Human Resources, and Information Management and Methods.
Source: Wikipedia