Okonjo-Iweala Named Forbes African Person Of The Year
Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been named as the recipient of the 2020 Forbes African Person of the Year award. The Forbes Africa-CNBC award is the latest honour clinched by the multi-award winning development economist. “The 2020 #AfricanOftheYear Award honoree is…Congratulations to Dr. @NOlweala! Board Chair @Gavi; Board Chair @ARCapicity, gracing the cover of @forbesafrica,” the world’s leading voice for entrepreneurial success and free enterprise tweeted on Tuesday.
Reacting to the news, Okonjo-Iweala, was said to have 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. She tweeted, “Thrilled to be named Forbes Africa-CNBC ‘2020 African of the Year’ following in the footsteps of my great brothers Paul Kagame and Akin Adesina.”
The award comes weeks after the Chair of the General Council of the World Trade Organisation, Dr. David Walker and facilitators of the process for the appointment of Director-General formally submitted her name as the WTO DG-designate, being the candidate who had garnered the most support to head the organisation. Okonjo-Iweala had emerged the overwhelming choice of WTO member-countries following a keenly contested race in which she got the majority support of the 164 member-countries.
She is also the World Health Organisation (WHO) Special Envoy for the newly inaugurated Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator and its offshoot, the COVAX facility, an international collaboration aimed at accelerating the development, production, and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests kits around the world with the specific objective of ensuring timely, affordable and equitable access to poor coun