The Real Big Girls: 3 Nigerian Women Holding Top Positions in International Organizations the World Respects

The Real Big Girls: 3 Nigerian Women Holding Top Positions in International Organizations the World Respects

The world stands in unison every March 8 to mark International Women's Day. According to the International Women's Day website, it is a special day set out to celebrate women's global, social, economic, cultural, and political achievements.

You must have come across photos of personalities on social media crossing their arms to strike an "x" pose, a show of solidarity with this year's them, which says #BreaktheBias.

IWD: 3 powerful Nigerian women holding leading roles in international organisations
Amina J. Mohammed, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Bola Adesola Photo Credit: Tim P. Whitby, Andreas Solaro, theafricaceoforum
Source: Getty Images

In the spirit of this special day, Legit.ng highlights 3 powerful Nigerian women holding top positions in international organisations.

1. Amina J. Mohammed (Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations)

In 2017, Amina J. Mohammed was appointed the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, making her the 5th person to hold the role.

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The Liverpool-born Nigerian woman is also the Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group.

IWD: 3 powerful Nigerian women holding leading roles in international organisations
Amina was Nigeria’s Minister of Environment between 2015-2016 Photo Credit: Tim P. Whitby, EuropaNewswire
Source: Getty Images

The well-read award-winning diplomat is not a new face when holding key roles in international organisations.

In 2012, she served as the Special Adviser to the former Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) on Post-2015 Development Planning. She spearheaded the process that resulted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and creating the Sustainable Development Goals, per Nairametrics.

The 60-year-old former Nigeria's Minister of Environment (2015-2016) served on the advisory boards and panels of global organisations like the ActionAid International "Right to Education Project, Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

2. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Director-General, World Trade Organisation)

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the perfect poster girl for this year's theme Breaking the Bias with her record-breaking and historic appointment as the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The appointment made on Monday, February 15, 2021, made the Delta-born the first Nigerian, African and woman to hold sway at the top position.

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IWD: 3 powerful Nigerian women holding leading roles in international organisations
Ngozi was Nigeria's Finance Minister under President Goodluck Jonathan Photo Credit: Fabrice Coffrini, Andreas Solaro
Source: Getty Images

The 67-year-old is well-deserving of such an elevated role considering her impeccable wealth of experience, rich CV and educational background.

The Harvard University graduate is the first woman to become the Finance Minister in Nigeria and held the position under President Olusegun Obasanjo (2003–2006) and President Goodluck Jonathan (2011–2015).

The 2005 Euromoney Global Finance Minister of the Year had a sterling career that spanned 25 years at the World Bank. She rose through the ranks, from a development economist to a Managing Director, Operations.

She was also on the board of Twitter Inc. as well as other top global organisations.

3. Bola Adesola (Co-Vice Chair, United Nations Global Compact)

Bola Adesola completes this list of powerful Nigerian women holding top roles in global organisations with her appointment as the Co-Vice Chair of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in 2018.

The Harvard Business School and Lagos Business School alumnus has over 25 years of banking experience and is currently Senior Vice-Chairman Africa of Standard Chartered Bank Group.

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IWD: 3 powerful Nigerian women holding leading roles in international organisations
Bola has over 25 years banking of experience Photo Credit: theafricaceoforum
Source: UGC

Bola was formerly the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank for Nigeria and West Africa.

Google.org announces $1m grant funding to support women entrepreneurs

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Google-org had on International Women's Day announced a whopping $1m grant funding to support women entrepreneurs.

In addition to the funding announcement, Google has also announced #LookMeUp, a campaign to showcase women entrepreneurs and tell their stories.

These stories feature women like Vivian Nwakah in Nigeria, who launched Medsafe, a pharma supply chain solution to help Nigerians access quality pharmaceutical health care services.

Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Victor Duru avatar

Victor Duru (Editor) Victor Duru is a Reuters-trained award-winning journalist with over 4 years of working experience in the media industry. He holds a B.Sc in Management Studies from Imo State University, where he was a Students' Union Government Director of Information. Victor is a human interest editor, strategic content creator, freelancer and a Google-certified digital marketer. His work has been featured on US news media Faith It. He can be reached via victor.duru@corp.legit.ng