02 Dec Okonjo-Iweala Named Forbes Africa-CNBC African of the Year
Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been announced as the recipient of the 2020 African of the Year award. She is the leading candidate for the position of Managing Director of the World Trade Organisation.
The Forbes Africa-CNBC award is the latest honour won by the multi-award winning development economist, one of the African Union (AU) Special Envoys appointed to mobilise international support for Africa’s efforts to address the COVID-19 economic fallout, according to a statement signed by her Media Adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu.
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 countries.
Okonjo-Iweala also serves as the Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private global health partnership that has immunised 760 million children in developing countries and saved 13 million lives.
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.
“It is a great honour to serve Africa in different capacities,” the statement quoted her to have said.
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