Vera Songwe

Vera Songwe is an economist and banking executive from Cameroon who worked for the World Bank from 1998 to 2015, and in 2015–2017 served as Western and Central Africa's regional director for the International Finance Corporation. She was the first woman to head the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the level of Under-Secretary-General. Songwe currently serves as a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Africa Growth Initiative.

Early life and education Songwe holds a PhD in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics and a Master of Arts in Law and Economics and a Diplôme d’études approfondies in Economic Science and Politics from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Career Songwe worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and simultaneously had a visiting professor's appointment at the University of Southern California.

In 1998, Songwe joined the World Bank, where she worked in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) unit, covering Morocco and Tunisia. Her main areas of interest are fiscal policy, innovative financing mechanisms for development, agriculture, energy and economic governance.

In 2011, Songwe was involved in Africa 2.0, an initiative to bring young Africans together to aid in the continent's economic development. She is a scholar at the Brookings Institution, at its Africa Growth Initiative. Forbes listed her in 2013 as one of the "20 Young Power Women in Africa", and the following year the Institut Choiseul for International Politics and Geoeconomics chose her as one of their "African leaders of tomorrow". In 2015 she collaborated with the newly-founded Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme, which pledged $100 million for African start-up companies.

In July 2015, Songwe was appointed Regional Director of the IFC for West and Central Africa.

Songwe took up her role as the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on 3 August 2017 at the level of Under-Secretary-General. El País and Le Monde.

On 22 August 2022, Songewe announced her resignation from UNECA.

Other activities She is also a member of the African Union Institutional reform team under the direction of the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and a board member of the African Leadership Network, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation,

In early 2021, Songwe was appointed by the G20 to the High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, co-chaired by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Lawrence Summers.

Speeches Statement by the Executive Secretary at the Fourth Conference of Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration, Lusaka, Zambia, 7 December 2017 Statement by the Executive Secretary at the opening of the African Economic Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 4 December 2017 Closing the Tech Gender Gap

Featured articles Africa Finance Ministers conference discusses importance of digital economy to continent La mauvaise gouvernance tue les jeunes Africains selon la Fondation Mo Ibrahim Strengthening National Accounts, SDGs And Employment At The Heart Of ECA-Egypt Bilateral Meeting

Concerns have emerged as Africa nations move to ratify the biggest free trade agreement, African Continental Free Trade Agreement in May 2019. Lack of domestic revenue crippling African economies Half of the world’s youth will be African Africa urged to speed up digitization Conferência discute investimentos na economia digital Poor governance is killing Africa’s young people - Mo Ibrahim Foundation Africa Fintech association launched in Morocco Économie et développement Africa's free trade area comes into force as Gambia ratification Gambia ratifies AfCFTA, putting it into motion Les gouvernements africains priés d’adopter la transformation numérique Identifying and addressing land governance constraints to support intensification and land market operation: Evidence from 10 African countries