Gordon Brown Helped Nigeria Reduce Debt Burden'MINISTER of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, needs no introduction ' not just as a result of last week's news of her making the list of top 100 Global Thinkers alongside President Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Having traversed the global economic space as World Bank managing director, with a diplomatic/political 'interregnum' at Nigeria's Finance and Foreign Affairs Ministries, she has been on global news, a feat the country still needs to leverage in addressing the current 'litany' of economic challenges.The iconic Washington-based journal, Foreign Policy magazine, which gave her the honour, specifically noted that she was recognised for her role as a champion of continental economic renaissance who has contributed significantly to putting Africa on the centre stage of global economic focus.Other achievements listed by the international journal include her focus on creating jobs and reducing the country's debt burden, 'despite the slump in the global economy and considerable challenges at home, including entrenched corruption and a strings of terrorist attacks.'It further stated that, as Managing Director of the World Bank, Okonjo-Iweala pushed innovative initiatives like 'Diaspora Bonds,' which allow immigrants in the West to invest in their home countries.Also in the list of Top 100 Global Thinkers are distinguished activists, political leaders, diplomats and entrepreneurs from across the world, among whom are British Prime Minister, David Cameron; former American President, Bill Clinton and Brazilian President, Dilma Roussef.Others include US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; Nobel Economics laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei.The first-ever female Finance Minister in Nigeria was, in July 2011 appointed the country's de facto 'Prime Minister,' with a mandate to steer its economic ship out of the stormy waters of corruption and sabotage.She first served as Finance Minister between 2003 and 2006, when she headed the country's much-acclaimed Presidential Economic team responsible for implementing a comprehensive home-grown economic reform programme that stabilised the macro-economy and tripled the growth rate to an average six per cent per annum over three years.Okonjo-Iweala also transmuted to the Foreign Affairs Ministry between June and August 2006 and briefly oversaw Nigeria'sExternal Relations.Her achievements as Finance Minister had garnered international recognition for improving Nigeria's financial stability and fostering greater fiscal transparency to combat corruption.In October 2005, she led the Nigerian team that negotiated the cancellation of US $18 billion or 60 per cent of Nigeria's external debt with the Paris Club.The debt deal also included an innovative buy-back mechanism that wiped out Nigeria's Paris club debt and reduced the country's external indebtedness from US$35 to US$5 billion. She oversaw Nigeria's first-ever Sovereign credit rating of BB- from Fitch and Standard and Poor's' a rating, which then grouped Nigeria with other emerging market countries such as Brazil, Vietnam, Venezuela, and Philippines.Interestingly, at the River State Investors Forum attended by former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in Port Harcourt, the Finance Minister told Nigerians how among her, Gordon Brown and former President Obasanjo, Nigeria had got the acclaimed debt relief.According Okonjo-Iweala, the former British Prime Minister was so magnanimous that he maintained steady phone call from the conference to bargain the percentage of death pardon. 'Gordon is a good friend of long standing. But one thing you did not hear about him is that without his help when we were negotiating debt relief for Nigeria, we wouldn't have been able to do it. Gordon was the chair of the G-7 Finance Ministers at the timeand he was the person in the room with the G7 at midnight negotiating for us to get the percentage debt relief we needed.'Gordon will call and say, 'Ngozi, they will only accept 50 per cent'; and I would say, 'hold on.' And I would call president Obasanjo and say, 'they said 50 per cent;' he (Obasanjo) would say, no, 70 per cent.'Then I would call Gordon Brown and say, 'Gordon the President is not going to accept that'. And we went back and forth all night (it was amazing) until we got the 60 per cent debt relief. So, I thank you Gordon.'Upon her resumption of duties in August, Okonjo-Iweala has been confronted with not a few challenges, ranging from insecurity to outright confrontation from 'entrenched' forces in the economy.Ironically, the award came to public limelight the same week the she had to defend her 'Economic Agenda' for Nigeria, saying that it was hinged on reducing recurrent expenditure in favour of robust infrastructure development.'Our expenditure pattern has been very volatile and unsteady,' she told a worried House of Representatives Committee on Finance.'This is not healthy at all. We want to cut recurrent expenditure and restrict it to below 70 per cent of annual budget. This is the reason we have equally been waging war against ghost workers and ghost pensioners.'Okonjo-Iweala, who admitted that the task of building a virile economy would be difficult if deficits in annual budgets were not drastically pruned, said strategies had been designed to achieve a total transformation of the economy by reducing deficit funding of budget and increase revenue base for optimal implementation.According to her, attention will be focused on blocking revenue leakages and ensuring that revenue accrued to the Federal Government does not get diverted.Her explanation followed the extension of the 2011 budget lifespan, as well as cuts, by N66.5 billion, of President Jonathan's virement request by the lawmakers.Okonjo-Iweala had, upon the assumption of her new office on Wednesday, August 24, 2011, used the occasion of her maiden media briefing to outline the economic priorities of Government, which she listed as follow:'Pruning Federal Government's recurrent expenditure, especially overheads, with the aim of keeping the budget deficit at three per cent of GDP;'Boosting economic productivity to create jobs through infrastructure investment in power, road and rail' Maintaining macroeconomic stability through prudent management of fiscal policy, ensuring that monetary and fiscal policies work in tandem;' Trimming Government spending to 'a more reasonable' level of 70 per cent;' Supporting CBN's policy of pegging the Naira to the dollar to provide stability for businesses, and to work with CBN to have an exchange rate that reflects the economy;' Keeping an eye on the rising domestic debt;' Maintaining faith with the Vision 20: 2020 and the Transforming Nigeria Document, as the bedrock of the economic agenda;' Giving priority attention to certain key sectoral areas, namely: security, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, housing and construction, the entertainment industry, education and health care.The overarching thrust of the Government's economic agenda is aimed at creating jobs, and improving infrastructure, especially electricity.According to her profile published on the World Bank website, the coordinating Minister for the Economy had previously pursued a 21-year career as development economist at the World Bank, where she held the post of Vice President and Corporate Secretary.'This included two tours of duty (six years) working in the East Asia Region, the last tour (1997-2000) as Country Director Malaysia, Mongolia, Laos and Cambodia during the East Asian financial crisis; two duty tours in theMiddle East Region, the last (2000-2003) as Director, Operations (deputy vice-president) of the region. Dr Okonjo-Iweala also served as Director of Institutional Change and Strategy (1995-1997).'In this post she assisted with the implementation of the Bank's reform agenda. From 1989 to 1991 she was Special assistant to the Senior Vice President, Operations, an assignment that enabled participation in high level policy formulation and discussions for countries as diverse as China and Burkina Faso.'Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvardand has a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is fluent in French, Ibo and English with working knowledge of Yoruba. She has received numerous awards, including Honorary Doctorate of Letters from University of Dublin, Trinity College, 2007, Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Colby College, 2007 and Brown University, 2006, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville, Jamaica, 2005, Time Magazine's European Hero of the Year Award, 2004, for her work on economic reform in Nigeria, Euromoney MagazineGlobal Finance Minister of the year, 2005, Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister of the year 2005, This Day (Nigeria's premier newspaper) Minister of the Year award 2004 and 2005.'Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is a member or chair of numerous boards and advisory groups, including DATA, the World Resources Institute, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nelson Mandela Institution, Friends of the Global Fund Africa, and the African Institute of Science and Technology. She has served as adviser to several international investment groups working in emerging markets and lectured on Africa and development all over the world. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was the founder of the first-ever indigenous opinion research organisation in Nigeria (NOI Polls) in partnership with the Gallup organization, which strives to strengthen democracy and accountability in Nigeria.'She was co-founder of the Makeda Fund, a US$50 million private equity fund designed to invest in women-owned and women-influenced small and medium enterprises in Africa.
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