I Saved Billions Of Dollars As Finance Minister – Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance, says billions of dollars were saved under her watch.

She served as finance minister from 2003 to 2006 as well as between 2011 and 2015.

Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s candidate for the World Trade Organisation director-general election, made the claim in an article published on Bloomberg.

The article titled “To Beat Covid-19, Governments Need to Open Up” emphasises the need for accountability and transparency during the COVID-19 era.

Okonjo-Iweala, who presently serves on the board of Bloomberg task force on fiscal policy for health, said her two tenures “saved billions of dollars that were channeled to other priorities”.

She said governments across the world must adopt openness and accountability to tackle the coronavirus pandemic effectively.

“During my tenure as Nigerian finance minister, we worked hard in a difficult governance environment to open up information and tackle corruption. Though it was not easy, we saved billions of dollars that were channeled to other priorities,” she said.

– The Cable