Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a globally renowned Nigerian economist best known for her two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria (her current position) and for her work at the World Bank, including several years as one of its Managing Directors (October 2007–July 2011). She briefly held the position of Foreign Minister of Nigeria in 2006.
- She has entrenched fiscal discipline in the management of public finances, which has helped in growing Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account and in turn the external reserves.
- She has instilled some sanity in the administration of Petroleum subsidy. More importantly, it has cut down significantly the amount spent on fuel subsidy from N2.19 trillion as at the end of the 2011 fiscal year to slightly over N1 trillion this year.
- She is responsible for the commencement of the Sovereign Weath Fund (SWF) which took off in October with a seed capital of $1 billion and the appointment of a board and management team
Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. in 1977, and earned her Ph.D. in Regional Economic Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981.
Mrs Omobola Johnson is the Minister of Communication Technology. She has been saddled with the job of defining, creating and managing the framework for Technology development in Nigeria amongst other things. She was the former Chairperson and Country Managing Director of Accenture in Nigeria. Mrs. Omobola Johnson assumed the office of the newly created ministry over a year and a half ago and has made some positive impact despite the paltry budget allocation.
Amongst other things, she was able to do the following:
- Develop the first National ICT policy which sought to harmonise the policies of all sections of the ICT industry. This has been submitted to the Federal Executive Council for approval,
- Championed the drive to ensure the migration of all governments, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to the .ng domain.
- Launch a Technology Innovation Programme called Techlaunchpad to nurture and develop software entrepreneurs
- Currently developing a national internet-based portal that will facilitate easy access to government information through publish and inform websites and by December 2014, where every single federal government MDAs will have a functioning published and inform websites domiciled on the portal.
- Currently working on local content guidelines which will result in an increase in domestic value-added to the ICT industry
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manchester and a Master’s degree in Digital Electronics from King’s College, London.
Ms. Funke Opeke is the CEO of Main One Cable Company. Main One Cable owns and operates West Africa’s first privately-owned undersea communication cable system that runs from Europe to Africa with landing points along the West African coast including Nigeria and Ghana. She is an experienced telecommunications executive who founded Main Street Technologies. Ms. Opeke returned to Nigeria in 2005 as the Chief Technical Officer of MTN Nigeria Communications (MTN) after a twenty-year career in the United States. Prior to her return, she was the Executive Director of Verizon Communications Wholesale Division. Subsequent to MTN, Ms. Opeke advised Transcorp on the acquisition of NITEL and briefly served as the interim Chief Operating Officer, post acquisition of NITEL.- Main One Cable commenced the process of integrating Nigeria’s higher institutions to other global institutions of higher learning through the deployment of broadband Internet capacity.
- Ms. Opeke won the 2012 CNBC All Africa Businesswoman of the Year Award (AABLA)
- Main One Cable company was selected as IDC-G’s data centre partner in West Africa, specifically Nigeria and Ghana
- Main One became the first West African company to connect its cable network to the London Internet Exchange Point (LINX) to enable reliable exchange of Internet traffic with improved routing control and performance. LINX is one of the largest internet exchange points in the world with over 430 members from more than 50 countries worldwide
Juliet Ehimuan Chiazor
Mrs Juliet Ehimuan Chiazor is the Country Manager for Google in Nigeria. Under her leadership, Google has been able to grow its awareness and influence in Nigeria. Some of the notable products and services launched this year include Gmail SMS. Some of the other programmes that were extended include Google Apps Supporting Programme for Nigerian universities, Getting Nigerian Businesses Online (GNBO), e.t.cJuliet holds an Executive MBA from the London Business School, a Post Graduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, UK; and a Bachelors degree (1st class honours) in Computer Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. She is a recipient of the London Business School Global Women’s Scholarship, and at Cambridge University she received two scholarly awards – Selwyn College Scholar and Malaysian Commonwealth Scholar. She is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society.
