By Hamilton Nwosa(Head Buisness and Data Tracking Desk)
Nigeria’s former minister of finance, and minister of foreign Affairs, respectively Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was on Friday named member-designate of South Africa’s presidential economic advisory council. Dr Okonjo-Iweala, a Harvard trained international development economist did not just attend the presidential council meeting alongside South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, at Tshwane, in the northern metropolitan Gauteng Province of Pretoria, South Africa but also participated very actively in the discussions that took place at the meeting.
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa had earlier said he is finalising plans and protocols to appoint Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a member of the country’s Economic Advisory Council.
A statement issued by the government of South Africa said among other things: “The Presidency is in the process of finalising the appointment of a seasoned economist and leader from West Africa who has accepted an invitation for her to serve as a member of the Council.”
While apparently waiting for the completion of the necessary inter-governmental and diplomatic international protocols for her appointment to be officially formalized, the two times former Nigerian Finance Minister tweeted in a group picture thus: “With President Ramaphosa, members of cabinet, and members of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council in Pretoria discussing sources of growth for the South African economy and win-win economic interactions with the continent.”
Recall that Okonjo-Iweala had served two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria (2003-2006, 2011-2015) under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan respectively. In the intervening years under Obasanjo, the later had deployed Okonjo-Iweala to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the debt forgiveness deal that freed Nigeria from all her previous international debts.
Recall also that South Africa is currently facing her second economic recession within a period of two years, as agriculture, transport and widespread power cuts are blamed for pushing the continent’s most industrialized country into economic recession.
According to the report, the country’s economy shrank 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter 2019, following a revised 0.8 per cent contraction in the third quarter, while its economy grew by just 0.2 per cent in 2019 and 0.8 per cent in 2018 respectively.
