“Change agent”: Okonjo-Iweala makes list of world’s 100 most powerful women

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been ranked number 83 in Forbes’ 100 world most powerful women.

According to the list released on Wednesday, President of Malawi, Mrs. Joyce Banda (47), Okonjo-Iweala (83) and Mrs. Helen Johnson-Sirleaf  (87) were the only Africans on the list.

German Chancellor, Mrs. Angela Merkel, was the first on the list; Brazillian President, Mrs. Dilma Rousseff, came second. Melinda Gates, Mitchelle Obama and Hilary Clinton came third, fourth and fifth on the list, respectively.

Forbes said, “Our annual snapshot of the 100 women with the most impact comprises top politicians and chief executive officers, activist billionaires and celebrities who matter. In roughly equal measure, you’ll find the next gen entrepreneurs and media mavens, technologists and leaders in philanthropy — all ranked by dollars, media momentum and impact.

“We’ve selected women that go beyond the traditional taxonomy of the power elite (political and economic might). These change-agents are actually shifting our very idea of clout and authority and, in the process, transforming the world in fresh and exhilarating ways.”

This year’s list featured nine heads of state that run nations with a combined Gross Domestic Product of $11.8tn.

It also listed 24 corporate CEOs controlling $893bn in revenues with 16 of the women that founded their own companies, including two of the three new billionaires, Tory Burch and Spanx’s Sara Blakely.

Okonjo-Iweala served as Managing Director of the World Bank Group between December 1, 2007 and August 2011.

She founded NOI-Gallup polls, and co-founded the Makeda Fund.

She served as finance minister and subsequently Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2003-2006.

As finance minister, she led Nigeria’s economic team to implement President Olusegun Obasanjo administration’s far reaching economic and social reform agenda.

Read more: Punch

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