The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been honoured with the Forbes Woman Africa Lifetime Achievement Award.
Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman and the first African to serve as WTO Director-General. She took office on March 1, 2021, and in November, 2024, was reappointed for a second four-year term set to begin on September 1, 2025.
A global finance expert with a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist, and over 40 years of experience in international development working in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was formerly Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
She also served as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance twice (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and briefly acted as Foreign Minister in 2006, the first woman to hold both positions, spearheading key reforms that enhanced transparency of government accounts and strengthened institutions against corruption,
Reacting to the Forbes award on a post on X, Okonjo-Iweala said, “Honored to receive the Forbes Woman Africa Lifetime Achievement Award. Many thanks to @forbesafrica for this great recognition at the Forbes Africa Leading Women’s Summit (I was sad not to be there in person). It’s wonderful that this is happening also during Women’s History Month. We stand on the shoulders of those greats who came before us but also on the fantastic younger women coming after. Congratulations to fellow Awardees, especially my younger sister @aoteh (Arunma Oteh). Here is to every hardworking and achieving African woman!”
Okonjo-Iweala has been listed in the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World (Forbes, 2023, 2022, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011), as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World (TIME, 2014 and 2021), one of the 25 most influential women (Financial Times, 2021), one of Transparency International’s Eight Female Anti-Corruption Fighters Who Inspire (2019), one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (Fortune, 2015), the Top 100 Global Thinkers (Foreign Policy, 2011 and 2012), among others.
In 2021, she received a Global Leadership Award from the United Nations Foundation as a “Champion for Global Change.”
She is the author of several books, including Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons co-authored with Julia Gillard, Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines, Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria, and The Debt Trap in Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Debt Strategy.
