From 1967 to ’70, Nigeria fought a war – the Nigeria-Biafra war. And in the middle of that war, I was 14 years old. We spent much of our time with my mother cooking. For the army – my father joined the army as a brigadier – the Biafran army. We were on the Biafran side. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read Quote
The U.K. and the U.S. could not have been built today without Africa’s aid. It is all the resources that were taken from Africa, including human, that built these countries today! So when they try to give back, we shouldn’t be on the defensive. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read Quote
I’m trying to tell you that there’s a new wave on the continent. A new wave of openness and democratization in which, since 2000, more than two-thirds of African countries have had multi-party democratic elections. Not all of them have been perfect, or will be, but the trend is very clear. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read Quote
Nigeria, with the oil sector, had the reputation of being corrupt and not managing its own public finances well. So what did we try to do? We introduced a fiscal rule that de-linked our budget from the oil price. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read Quote
One in four sub-Saharan Africans is Nigerian, and it has 140 million dynamic people – chaotic people – but very interesting people. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read Quote
I felt Nigeria didn’t have to succumb to the image of being a corrupt country; we didn’t have to let the economy stagnate. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read Quote
Educating our young girls is the foundation for Nigeria’s growth and development. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Read Quote
