Dr. Vera Songwe is from Cameroon. She was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres as the ninth Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the level of UN Under-Secretary-General on 17 April 2017. Upon her appointment, she became the first woman to have served in this role.
As Executive Secretary, Songwe’s reforms focused on “ideas for a prosperous Africa”, and brought to the fore critical issues of macroeconomic stability, development finance, private sector growth, poverty and inequality, the digital transformation, trade and competitiveness.
She was listed as one of Africa’s 50 most powerful women by Forbes in 2020 and named as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ by Jeune Afrique in 2019. In 2017, New African Magazine listed her as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ and the Financial Times named her one of ’25 Africans to watch’ in 2015. Songwe was acknowledged for her long-standing track record of providing policy advice and her wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa. She has written extensively on development and economic issues including on debt, infrastructure development, fiscal and governance issues.
Prior to ECA, she held a number of senior leadership roles with the International Finance Corporation and World Bank.
She holds a PhD in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics, a Master of Arts in Law and Economics and a Diplôme d’études approfondies in Economic Science and Politics from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. She also holds a B.A. in Economics and Political science from the University of Michigan. She was also a student of Our Lady of Lourdes College, Bamenda, Cameroon.