LAZARD HIRES NIGERIA'S FORMER FINANCE MINISTER

Lazard, a 167-year-old global investment firm has hired Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former finance minister as its Senior Advisor.

Okonjo-Iweala’s focus will be sovereign advisory, Paul Nwabuikwu, Media Adviser to the former minister said in a statement on Monday.

At Lazard, Okonjo-Iweala will work alongside colleagues including former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating; former Special adviser to President Bill Clinton, Vernon Jordan; former Spanish Economy Minister and current Snr Managing Director at Lazard, Rodrigo de Rato; former chair of NASDAQ, Frank Zarb; former Finance Minister of Chile, Andres Velasco; and former British Minister of Parliament/Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell.

Founded in 1848 and operating from 43 cities across 27 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, Lazard is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients. Its principal executive offices are in New York City, Paris and London.

This is the second of the two international positions  that the former Managing Director of the World Bank has just  clinched, the first being to serve as Chair of the 28-member Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, GAVI.

“We are proud to welcome Dr. Okonjo-Iweala as a Senior Advisor to our world-leading sovereign advisory group,” said Matthieu Pigasse, Global Head of M&A and Sovereign Advisory of Lazard. “She will bring a unique international expertise and experience that will benefit both our sovereign and corporate clients.”

In her reaction to the two appointments,  Okonjo-Iweala who will be working out of Paris, Geneva and London said she is excited to be embarking on this fresh journey.

“The two appointments will enable me to continue doing what I know best – rendering public service and using my financial and economist skills. I thank the international community for the recognition and continued support. I am also grateful for the prayers and support of many Nigerians,” she stated.

Okonjo-Iweala’s second appointment is to serve as Chair of the 28-member Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, GAVI, a $12 billion multilateral partnership which disburses grants of upwards of $1.8 billion annually to developing countries for immunization programmes.

Gavi is an international public-private partnership committed to saving the lives of children and protecting people’s health by improving access to immunization in developing countries, including Nigeria.

Okonjo-Iweala was elected to the position after a competitive international search process, Nwabuikwu also noted in the statement.

GAVI brings together developing countries and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialized and developing countries, research and technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private philanthropists.

GAVI is funded by governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, the People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Spain, the State of Qatar, the Sultanate of Oman, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States as well as the European Commission, the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and other institutional and corporate partners.

It would be recalled that, from 2000-2015, GAVI disbursed $425m in grants to Nigeria, an average of about $30m per annum for vaccination and immunization of children, including polio vaccines.

Okonjo-Iweala succeeds Dagfinn Høybråten, a former Norwegian Minister of Health and current Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers as Chair of GAVI.

Previous Chairs include Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and respected education activist and former First Lady of South Africa, Graca Machel.

source: Businessday Nigeria