I’m Back To Fix Nigeria's Economy – Okonjo-Iweala

[emezico]

As she rounded off as a managing director at the World Bank on Friday in Washington, to assume duty from next week for the second time as Minister of Finance, Professor Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has described Nigeria as a tough country.

This notwithstanding, she said she could not be overwhelmed by the challenges on ground in the quest to put the nation's economy on the path of recovery and prosperity.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was given a clean bill of health after screening by the Senate, said she was encouraged by patriotic zeal to return home and contribute to repositioning the economy.

While her colleagues assumed duty last June, she had enjoyed a one-month grace of absence to enable her conclude the process of her disengagement from the Washington-based World Bank.

An agency report quoted her as promising that her top priority as minister would be to develop and diversify the national economy such that Nigeria could be less dependent on oil and gas as its economic mainstay.

Describing the task as her biggest challenge, Okonjo-Iweala said the economy required fundamental structuring so as to attract more investors.

"Why am I going back? I ask myself that question too. I'm passionate about my country and if you have skills and your country calls on you to come and help, at the end of the day it's very difficult to say no."

"Nigeria has to make some fundamental changes, it has to really diversify its economy," Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. "The time is now because investors are interested in the country,"  she said.

[MyInfoStride]

Welcome back. May God guide you aright as you have prepared your mind to save Nigeria from perpetual economic paralysis and slavery.