At last, what seems to be like a jinx by men occupying the seat of the WTO all along, has been broken. The one that has broken this jinx is no other person than Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. A woman of impeccable character, with indefatigable spirit, a woman I describe as indomitable lioness who has carved a niche for herself as a staff in the World Bank, has added another feather to her cap by becoming the first woman ever to occupy the highly exalted seat of the World Trade Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. This is a woman I regard as a woman of virtue, a virtuous woman as described by the Bible.
When the Nigerian government of the Peoples Democratic Party came to power in 1999, the then government of Obasanjo was jittery because when they came in, they found nothing in the treasury of the Federal government of Nigeria. As if that was not enough, the then government of Obasanjo and Atiku was saddled with backlogged debt of the World Bank and the Paris Club which was running into almost $30 billion. But that government in their wisdom sat down to find how to unburden the yoke of debt in the country’s neck. They now begin to search for anyone that can help in offsetting this backlogged debt. It was on this basis of searching for somebody, that information came to the President Obasanjo that if there is anyone that can solve the problem of unburdening the debt, there is a Nigerian woman in the World Bank that can help in finding solution to settle this backlogged debt. And that was the first time a Nigerian ever knew that there was someone like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in the World Bank.
And when she was invited she never hesitated to respond to the clarion call to serve her fatherland. When she came and started working as the finance minister in the then government of Obasanjo, she left no one in doubt that being in the World Bank, she knew her onions by serving the financial institution.
After her appointment as the minister of finance to the Obasanjo’s government, she proved her mirtle by going deep on how those debt were incurred by the past governments and found that some of those debts were frivolously tied on the country’s neck. She worked tirelessly and ensured that some of those debt that were not worthy of being called debt at all were dismantled and some other debts were written off and that is how the Nigerian government got a breath of life.
Not stopping there, she sort for a competent hand in the Central Bank of Nigeria to serve as the governor of the Apex Bank in order for the government to have a sound footing and to move the country forward. And that was how the second name of Charles Chukwuma Soludo came about. And Soludo’s invitation complemented the financial seat of the government. That was how this great African pride laid a very solid foundation for her country Nigeria.
When she came in as minister of finance they met about 89 banks operating in Nigeria. It was her policy as minister of finance that brought about the recapitalization of banks in Nigeria, first of which was N25 billion naira for every bank to recapitalize then after that, it was increased to N50 billion naira to separate the mushroom banks from the real ones. Out of the 89 banks that they met in the country, some banks merged while others fell apart. Out of which only eleven banks survived as the real banks operating today.
Other policies which she introduced into the banking system of Nigeria under the government of Goodluck Jonathan was the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Finally, still in the government of Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala introduced the Development Bank of Nigeria solely for the entrepreneurship, that is the SMEs in order for them to have a place to draw from and make entrepreneurship to thrive in Nigeria as they are the ones that drives the economy of a nation.
Congratulations to a woman with a large heart who has made it possible for Nigerians to put their money in the bank and go home to sleep with their two eyes closed instead of the nightmares they went through before her arrival in the Obasanjo’s government.
Photo Credit: TheCable
