By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, has secured a new appointment.
Ezekwesili, an economic policy expert and senior economic adviser at the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI), was appointed a member of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) Board of Trustees.
IBFD said it was honoured to announce the appointment which took effect from April 1, 2020.
The announcement was made through a statement by Jan Maarten Slagter, CEO of IBFD, on Wednesday.
Slagter said, “IBFD is delighted that Dr. Oby Ezekwesili has joined our Board of Trustees and expects that her unique perspective and contribution will be enormously beneficial, in particular to the work that we do in developing economies.
“The current crisis will put more strain on government budgets, and domestic resource mobilization will be more important than ever going forward.”
As member of the Board of Trustees, Ezekwesili, a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy and co-founder of Transparency International, will contribute to the oversight of IBFD’s expansion in developing economies.
She is expected to bring her wealth of knowledge and experience in international organizations and capacity building to help IBFD build on its strengths: independence and quality.
Reacting to the appointment, Ezekwesili, in a tweet on her official Twitter page on Thursday, expressed happiness.
She wrote: “Yes, I am delighted to join the Board of Trustees of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.
Dr Ezekwesili, former Vice-President of the World Bank’s Africa division, was also Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, Head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit and former Chairperson of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
