Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has named Nigeria’s former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a member of the External Advisory Group.
The IMF boss inaugurated the group on Friday in Washington DC, United States.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala is among high-level technocrats and policy experts who will serve as Ms Georgieva’s special advisers.
The new external advisory group will provide perspectives on key developments and policy issues including responses to the challenges the world now faces due to the novel coronavirus and its economic impact on member countries.
Georgieva said: “Even before the spread of Covid-19 and the dramatic health, economic, and financial disruptions it has brought, IMF members confronted a rapidly evolving world and complex policy issues.
“To serve our membership well in this context, we need top-notch input and expertise from the widest range of sources, inside and outside the Fund.
“Toward this end, I am proud that an exceptional and diverse group of eminent individuals with high-level policy, market, and private sector experience has agreed to serve on my External Advisory Group.
“Today, we had a dynamic discussion to gain their insights, and to receive informal reactions to our ideas and approaches,” she added.
The advisory group will be meeting a few times a year with the IMF’s managing director, deputies, and a sub-set of IMF department directors.
Okonjo-Iweala, a former Vice President of the World Bank, is on the group alongside former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd; former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Mark Brown; Chair of ActionAid International, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda among others.
