Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Quotes

#1. I know what it means to go to the stream to fetch water ... what it means when people are poor and don't have enough to eat. It's not enough to say you know about poverty. You have to live it.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#2. I felt Nigeria didn't have to succumb to the image of being a corrupt country; we didn't have to let the economy stagnate.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#3. I'm trying to tell you that there's a new wave on the continent. A new wave of openness and democratization in which, since 2000, more than two-thirds of African countries have had multi-party democratic elections. Not all of them have been perfect, or will be, but the trend is very clear.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#4. If we save people from HIV/AIDS, if we save them from malaria, it means they can form the base of production for our economy.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#5. When it comes to doing my job, I keep my ego in my handbag.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#6. The best way to help Africans today is to help them to stand on their own feet. And the best way to do that is by helping create jobs.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#7. My parents lost everything, all their savings, because we had to run from the Nigerian side to the Biafran side. We were Igbos.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#8. Investing in women is smart economics, and investing in girls, catching them upstream, is even smarter economics.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#9. Africans ... their tired. They're tired of being the subject of everybody's charity and care. We are grateful, but we know that we can take charge of our own destinies if we have the will to reform.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#10. Today, the European Union is busy transferring aid. If they can build infrastructure in Spain, roads, highways ... why do they refuse to use the same aid to build the same infrastructure in our countries?

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#11. I'm standing here saying that those who miss the boat now, will miss it forever. So if you want to be in Africa, think about investing.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#12. I believe that when you find problems, you should also find solutions.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#13. I can take hardship. I can sleep on the cold floor anytime. I can also sleep on a feather bed.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#14. When you save the life of anyone, a farmer, a teacher, a mother, they are contributing productively into the economy.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#15. The U.K. and the U.S. could not have been built today without Africa's aid. It is all the resources that were taken from Africa, including human, that built these countries today! So when they try to give back, we shouldn't be on the defensive.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#16. Women account for about 70% of Africa's food production and manage a large proportion of small enterprises. They are also increasingly represented in legislative and executive leadership positions.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#17. I'm told I'm like my father, and he was the most wonderful man. But I think he was gentler than me.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#18. From 1967 to '70, Nigeria fought a war - the Nigeria-Biafra war. And in the middle of that war, I was 14 years old. We spent much of our time with my mother cooking. For the army - my father joined the army as a brigadier - the Biafran army. We were on the Biafran side.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#19. Nigeria, with the oil sector, had the reputation of being corrupt and not managing its own public finances well. So what did we try to do? We introduced a fiscal rule that de-linked our budget from the oil price.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#20. No one can fight corruption for Nigerians except Nigerians. Everyone has to be committed from the top to the bottom to fight it.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#21. [Africa] is a continent of many countries, not one country. If we are down to three or four conflicts, it means that there are plenty of opportunities to invest in stable, growing, exciting economies where there's plenty of opportunity.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#22. The idea [the government's 'You Win' campaign] is that instead of young people in Nigeria waiting to get employment, they should create their own jobs and employ their peers and employ other people.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#23. Educating our young girls is the foundation for Nigeria's growth and development.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

#24. One in four sub-Saharan Africans is Nigerian, and it has 140 million dynamic people - chaotic people - but very interesting people.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala