Business
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala denies seeking World Bank’s top job
The arrangement has provoked protests in recent year from emerging and developing economies, which are seeking greater representation at the two bodies.
American economist Jeffrey Sachs has declared himself a candidate to head the World Bank and has garnered public support from a handful of smaller emerging-market countries, but so far has not been endorsed by President Barack Obama.
Okonjo-Iweala is a respected former World Bank managing director who joined Nigeria’s government as finance minister in August.
She has since pushed for various reforms in Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, which has long been held back by deeply rooted corruption.
The reform push has had mixed results, with the most high-profile initiative, an attempt to end fuel subsidies widely seen as riddled with corruption and a drain on the country’s budget, turning into a political fiasco.
Nigeria’s bid to end subsidies all at once and without prior notice at the start of the year caused petrol prices to instantly more than double and led to a week of strikes and street protests that virtually shut the country down.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was forced to compromise and partially reinstate the subsidies.
