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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was born on the 13th of June 1954. She hails from the Umu Obi Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State Nigeria. Her father’s name is Professor Chukuka Okonjo. Ngozi was the former Finance Minister and later Foreign Affairs Minister of Nigeria, notable for being the first woman to hold either of those positions. She served as Finance Minister from July 2003 until her appointment as Foreign Affais Minister in June 2006. She resigned as Foreign Affairs Minister in August 2006. Okonjo-Iweala was considered as a possible replacement for former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. On October 4 2007 she was appointed as Managing Director of the World Bank by World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

Dr. Ngozi Iweala-Okonjo was educated at Harvard University (A.B. Magna Cum Laude 1977) and earned her Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is married - her husband is from Umuahia, Abia State - and they have four children. The eldest, Onyinye Iweala received her Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University in 2008 and currently attends Harvard Medical School. Her son, Uzodinma Iweala, is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Beasts of No Nation (2005).

Prior to her ministerial career in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala was vice-president and corporate secretary of the World Bank Group. She left the World Bank after she was appointed to President Obasanjo's cabinet as Finance Minister on 15 July 2003.

In October 2005, she led the Nigerian team that struck a deal with the Paris Club, a group of bilateral creditors, to pay a portion of Nigeria's external debt (US $12 billion) in return for an $18 billion debt write-off. Prior to the partial debt payment and write-off, Nigeria spent roughly U.S. $1 billion every year on debt servicing, without making a dent in the principal owed.

Okonjo-Iweala also introduced the practice of publishing each state's monthly financial allocation from the federal government in the newspapers. She was instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor's. Nigeria is considered to have defaulted on its sovereign debt in 1983 (debt rescheduling is considered a type of default by rating agencies).

She resigned as Nigeria's Foreign Minister on August 3, 2006 following her sudden removal as head of Nigeria's Economic Intelligence team by President Olusegun Obasanjo. She left office at the end of August 2006.

On October 4, 2007, World Bank President Robert Zoellick appointed her to the post of Managing Director, effective December 1, 2007.

In 2007, Okonjo-Iweala's NGO, NOI Global Consulting, partnered with the Gallup Organization to introduce an opinion poll, the NOI poll, into the Nigerian polity. She is a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Okonjo-Iweala also serves on the Advisory Board of the Global Financial Integrity Program and on the Board of Directors of the World Resources Institute.

Honors and awards

Time Europe Hero 2004

This Day Nigeria Minister of the Year 2004

Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the year 2005

Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister 2005

Nigerian of the Year 2006

Honorary Doctorate from Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.

Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland.

Honorary Doctorate from Colby College, Maine, USA.

Honorary Doctorate from Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville, Jamaica.