Nigerian former Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) member, Dr. Iyabo Masha, has become the first African to be appointed Director of the Intergovernmental Group of 24 on International Monetary Affairs and Development (G24).
Her appointment was announced in a statement issued by the organization in Washington DC on Sunday, as it reported that Dr. Iyabo Masha was appointed on February 24th, 2023.
The appointment comes after what the organization called “an extensive recruitment process”. She succeeded Marilou Uy a senior adviser of the World Bank and G24’s director of the secretariat.
G24 is a representative grouping of developing countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, founded in 1971. Since its inception, Dr. Masha is the first African to occupy the position of Director as past directors have been from Asia or the Latin American bloc of the membership.
According to the statement, Dr. Masha has a wide range of policy, operational, and research experience at global and national levels.
Between 2019 and 2022, she was a member of Nigeria’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council centered on advising the President of Nigeria on economic policy. As a member, she led PEAC’s work on global economic impact and macroeconomic and sustainable development policies.
The statement reads that, “she worked on a range of countries at the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC. She also served as IMF resident representative for Sierra Leone”.
In 2003, Masha worked for IMF from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), where she led the research department’s annual monetary programme. She is also an author and contributor to several publications.
The G24 organizes developing nations’ stances on monetary and development-related problems, notably those on the international monetary and financial committee and development committee’s agendas.
Also, it represents the group’s viewpoints in pertinent international forums.
On the board of governors, member nations are represented by their finance ministers and their deputies, and the permanent secretariat is located in Washington, DC.
Adama Coulibaly, Côte d’Ivoire’s minister of finance, is in charge of the board of governors’ executive branch for the two-year period 2022–2023.