By Sunday Etuka, Abuja
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has unveiled the Director-General of World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a Keynote Speaker for the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Association.
Holding between 23-30 August, 2024, in Lagos, the Conference with the Theme, “Pressing Forward: A National Posture for Rebuilding Nigeria”, will have other notable Nigerians in Attendance.
NBA said, the decision to hold the Conference again in Lagos, follows the resolutions made at its National Executive Committee Meeting in December last year.
Dr. Okonjo-Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian-American economist who has been serving as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021.
Notably, she is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization as Director-General.
She was previously on the boards of Danone, Standard Chartered Bank, MINDS: Mandela Institute for Development Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, One Campaign, GAVI: Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, Rockefeller Foundation, R4D: Results for Development, ARC: African Risk Capacity and Earthshot Prize plus others.
She also previously sat on the Twitter Board of Directors, and stepped down in February 2021 in connection with her appointment as Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
Okonjo-Iweala serves Brookings Institution as a non-resident distinguished fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative in their Global Economy and Development Program.
She is a Commissioner Emeritus and Co-Chair of Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. At The World Bank, she had a 25-year career as a development economist; rising to become Managing Director for Operations from 2007 to 2011.
Okonjo-Iweala was the first Nigerian woman to serve two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria; initially, under President Olusegun Obasanjo from 2003 to 2006; and secondly, under President Goodluck Jonathan from 2011 to 2015.
Subsequently, from June to August 2006, she served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. In 2005, Euromoney named her Global Finance Minister of the Year.
