Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili

Minister of Education

In June 2006, Ezekwesili was appointed the Federal Minister of Education, a post she held until she took up a World Bank appointment in May 2007.

While in government, Ezekwesili led the restructuring and refocusing of the Ministry of Education for the attainment of Education for All (EfA) targets and Millennium Development Goals. She also introduced public-private partnerships for education service delivery, revamped the Federal Inspectorate Service as an improved quality assurance mechanism, and introduced transparency and accountability mechanisms for better governance of the budget.

1999-2007

Ezekwesili started in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration as the pioneer head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (also known as the Due Process Unit). It was in this position that she earned the sobriquet of "Madam Due Process" for her work of leading a team of professionals to sanitize the public procurement and contracting processes at the federal level in Nigeria. She was the architect of the Bureau for Public Procurement legislation, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) legislation, and the new Minerals and Mining legislation during her six and a half year tenure in government.

Minister of Solid Minerals

In June 2005, Ezekwesili was appointed Minister of Solid Minerals (Mines and Steel), where she led a reform program that led to Nigeria's global recognition as a credible mining investment destination. She was also the chairperson of the NEITI, and led the first national implementation of the global standards and principles of transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector.

Vice president, World Bank's Africa region

In March 2007, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz announced the appointment of Ezekwesili as vice president for the Africa region starting on 1 May 2007.

In 2012, she successfully completed her tenure as vice president for the World Bank's Africa region. As vice president, she was in charge of the bank's operations of 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and supervised a lending portfolio of over $40 billion.

Later career

As a senior economic advisor for Open Society, a group founded by George Soros, Ezekwesili advised nine reform-committed African heads of state including Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.

Board memberships

On 1 October 2012, telecommunications firm, Bharti Airtel, with operations in 20 countries, named Ezekwesili as a director on its board. She also served on the boards of World Wildlife Fund, the School of Public Policy of Central European University, the Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy, New African magazine, Women Political Leaders, Fundacao Dom Cabral and the Center for Global Leadership Tufts University. In April 2020, she was appointed to the board of trustees of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation where she contributes to overseeing their expansion in developing economies. She is also the co-chair of the World Economic Forum Africa Regional Stewardship Board.

In January 2019, Ezekwesili was appointed on the advisory board of directors of Nexford University in Washington DC and subsequently launched a scholarship program dedicated to women in Nigeria. In December 2021, Nexford University appointed her as a member of its board of directors.

She is also the senior economic adviser to the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative and a member of the advisory board of the Institute for State Effectiveness.

Advocacy and #BringBackOurGirls campaign

In March 2014, Ezekwesili delivered a speech at the national summit of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria's leading opposition party. She criticized the many cross-carpeting governors and urged the party to have "a conversation deeper than how you're going to chase (the ruling) PDP out of power".

After nearly 300 mainly Christian girls were abducted from Chibok by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Ezekwesili used the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) advocacy group to draw global attention to the plight of all persons who have been abducted by terrorists from Nigeria's war ravaged northeast region. She was instrumental to the start of the viral #Advocacy and #BringBackOurGirls Campaign on social media, which trended internationally. On 23 April, at the opening ceremony for a UNESCO event honoring Port Harcourt as the 2014 World Book Capital, she urged Nigerians not only to tweet but actively participate in efforts to "bring back our girls".

As she prepared to board a British Airways flight to London to appear on the BBC programme Hard Talk in July 2014, she was detained by Nigeria's secret service, the SSS, who also seized her passport. She was later released the same morning.

She is the founder and convener of the #RedCardMovement.