Former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has opened up on how she recently secured two key international positions.

The first is to serve as Chair of the 28-member Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, GAVI, (http://www.gavi.org/about/), an international public-private partnership committed to saving the lives of children and protecting people’s health by improving access to immunisation in developing countries, including Nigeria.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s Media Adviser, Paul C Nwabuikwu, said this afternoon that she was elected to the position after a competitive international search process.

GAVI is a $12 billion multilateral partnership which disburses grants of upwards of $1.8 billion annually to developing countries for immunization programmes.

GAVI brings together developing countries and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialised 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.

From 2000-2015, GAVI disbursed $425m in grants to Nigeria, an average of about $30m per annum for vaccination and immunisation of children, including polio vaccines.

Dr 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.

In the second appointment, the former Managing Director of the World Bank has also joined the highly respected 167-year-old global investment firm, Lazard as Senior Advisor. Her focus will be sovereign advisory.

“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.”

At Lazard, Dr 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.

In her reaction to the two appointments, Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who will be working out of Paris, Geneva and London, said: “I am 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.”

•Photo shows Okonjo-Iweala.