Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

What KOKO knows now

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is director-general of the World Trade Organization, a role she first assumed on 1 March 2021. She became the first woman and the first African to lead the organisation. Her second four-year term began on 1 September 2025, following her reappointment in November 2024. Her career spans international development, public finance and trade.

She served as Nigeria’s finance minister in 2003–2006 and 2011–2015, and briefly as foreign minister in 2006. Before leading the WTO, she spent 25 years at the World Bank, rising to managing director for operations. She has also chaired Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Okonjo-Iweala studied economics at Harvard University and earned a doctorate in regional economics and development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her work in Nigeria included negotiations with the Paris Club and reforms to public financial management.