Another honour: IMF names Okonjo-Iweala External Advisory Group member
The Managing Director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Kristalina Georgieva, has named Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a member of prominent individuals to serve as her new External Advisory Group.
According to a statement by the organisation, yesterday, the eminent group from around the world draws on high-level policy, market, and private sector experience to provide insights to enhance the Fund’s ability to serve its membership.
The Advisory Group would provide perspectives from around the globe on key developments and policy issues, including policy responses to the exceptional challenges the world now faces due to the novel coronavirus and its economic impact. Ms Georgieva was quoted as saying, “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.”
Other members, of the group are ”Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister of Singapore and Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore; Ms. Kristin Forbes, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Mr. Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia; Lord Mark Malloch Brown, former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General; and Mr. Feike Sijbesima, Honorary Chair, DSM, Former CEO, Royal DSM.
The rest were: Mr. Raghuram Rajan, Professor, University of Chicago; Ms. Ana Botín, Group Executive Chairman, Santander; Ms. Carmen Reinhart, Professor, Harvard University; Mr. Mohamed A. El-Erian, Chief Economic Adviser, Allianz; Mr. Scott Minerd, Chief Investment Officer, Guggenheim Investments; and Ms. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Chair of ActionAid International “The Managing Director’s External Advisory Group will meet a few times a year with the IMF’s Managing Director, Deputy Managing Directors, and a sub-set of IMF department Directors”, the Fund said. Vanguard
