Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general, World Trade Organisation (WTO), has been honoured as the 2025 Cressey Award recipient by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the leading anti-fraud group in the United States and a distinguished honour recognising lifetime achievement in fraud detection and deterrence.
The award is named after Dr. Donald Cressey, a co-founder of the ACFE and one of the leading authorities on fraud in the United States. According to a statement from the ACFE, the Cressey Award, which was instituted in 1989, is the highest accolade given by the organisation and honours people who devote their professional lives to preventing fraud and advancing integrity.
Okonjo-Iweala is the first African and woman to serve as the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). With almost 40 years of experience as an economist and international development specialist, she has held two previous positions as Nigeria’s finance minister, where she led anti-corruption measures and played a key role in the $30 billion debt write-off for Nigeria from the Paris Club.
After 25 years, she also held prominent positions at the World Bank, such as Managing Director of Operations. She has been on the boards of Twitter Inc. and Standard Chartered Bank, and she was a senior adviser at Lazard Ltd. She also served as the COVID-19 Special Envoy for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the African Union (AU) in 2020.
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She served as chair of the Vaccine Alliance (2016–2020), chair of the Board of Gavi, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate with Lord Nicholas Stern (2014–2020), and chair of the African Union’s African Risk Capacity Group (2014–2020).
22 honorary degrees from some of the most prominent universities in the world have been awarded to Okonjo-Iweala. She received the second-highest accolade in the nation, the Collar of the Order of Timor Leste, in 2024.
In 2023, the Federative Republic of Brazil additionally awarded her the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco. Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Nigeria’s second-highest national accolade, was bestowed upon her in 2022. The governments of the Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire have given her national honours.
Okonjo-Iweala obtained a Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after earning her bachelor’s degree in economics, Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard University.
With this recognition, ACFE proudly acknowledges Okonjo-Iweala’s exceptional achievements to fraud prevention, highlighting her record of bold reform, global leadership, and an unwavering pursuit of integrity.
During the 36th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, which is now taking place in the United States from June 22 to 27, 2025, the 2025 Cressey Award will be awarded.
