Cameroonian-born Vera Songwe resigns from top UN job
By Hans Ngala
Celebrated Cameroon-born economist Vera Songwe has announced that she will be stepping down as the head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in September.
Songwe who holds a PhD in Mathematical Economics was head of UNECA for 5 years and made her resignation public in an op-ed on allAfrica.com on Monday.
In her op-ed, the 54-year-old hailed the UN for helping to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease an international food crisis in July.
During her five-year stint at the continent’s premier economic think tank, Songwe has presided over issues ranging from the shake-up of the global financial structure, to combatting the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
When the continent pushed for vaccines amid a global vaccine shortage, UNECA worked alongside South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the African Union, the Africa Center for Disease Control and the Afreximbank to secure the first shipment of vaccines for African countries, all thanks to Dr. Songwe’s visionary leadership.
“We set up the African Medical Supplies Platform and, later, the African Vaccines Acquisition Team – building institutions for Africa’s future and economic autonomy,” she wrote.
Under her tutelage, UNECA has also been instrumental in building the continent’s capacity to source, manufacture and trade vaccines.
Before joining the UN agency, Songwe served as regional director for West and Central Africa for the International Finance Corporation, and country director for Senegal, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Mauritania at the World Bank.
She also served as lead economist at the World Bank and as advisor to the Bank’s managing director, former Nigerian finance minister and current head of the World Trade Organization Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
