Okonjo-Iweala Joins US Investment Bank

SAN FRANCISCO, September 20, (THEWILL) – Nigeria's former Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says she is joining United States financial advisory and asset management bank, Lazard.

Okonjo-Iweala also said she has been appointed chair-elect of the board of Bill and Melinda Gates' Gavi the Vaccine.

“The two appointments I'm going to undertake embody a continuation of what I've tried to do in my career”, she told the Financial Times.

“My work at Gavi will help me continue my work in strengthening institutions and building systems” to improve the health of children through immunisation, she said. At Lazard, she said, she would advise countries on structuring their finances and dealing with debt issues, the newspaper wrote.

The globally acclaimed economist, who served twice as Finance Minister, first under President Olusegun Obasanjo and later under Goodluck Jonathan, has been criticized by many for looking the other way while billions of dollars earned from crude were siphoned from the treasury in the Jonathan government.