Series: Top 100 women: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Guardian (UK)

8 March 2011

Series: Top 100 women: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The former finance director of Nigeria who is now a managing director of the World Bank
"When I became finance minister they called me Okonjo-Wahala – or Trouble Woman," says Nigeria's former finance and foreign minister, now a managing director of the World Bank. "It means 'I give you hell.' But I don't care what names they call me. I'm a fighter; I'm very focused on what I'm doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve. If you get in my way, you get kicked." Plenty of people have been: corrupt politicians, oil barons who siphon off profits, internet scammers who gave Nigeria a terrible image. Gordon Brown has called her a "brilliant reformer"; Okonjo-Iweala, now 56, negotiated a deal which slashed Nigeria's debt, introduced financial transparency and tripled the growth rate.