ARUNMA OTEH,FORMER DIRECTOR GENERAL OF SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION OF NIGERIA APPOINTED WORLD BANK TREASURER

 

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2015—World Bank President Jim Yong Kim today announced the appointment of Arunma Oteh as Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank.
“Arunma has deep knowledge of capital markets and tremendous experience as the former Treasurer of one of our partner development banks,” said Kim. “We are very fortunate to be able to recruit an individual of Arunma’s obvious caliber.”Ms. Oteh, a Nigerian national from Abia State, was most recently the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria. Appointed to a five-year term by the President of Nigeria in 2010, she led the transformation of the country’s capital markets industry into a major global presence. She was a member of the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the Chairperson of the Africa Middle East Regional Committee of IOSCO.
Prior to joining the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria, Ms. Oteh was Group Vice President, Corporate Services, at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). In this role she oversaw a number of departments, including human resources, information and communications technology, and institutional procurement. From 2001 to 2006 she held the role of AfDB Group Treasurer, where she led AfDB’s fundraising and capital market activities across the world. Earlier roles at the AfDB, which she joined in 1992, included trading room management, investment portfolio coverage, and public sector lending. She also held other positions in capital markets and lending during the course of her career at the AfDB.
In her role at the World Bank, Ms. Oteh will manage and lead a large and diverse team responsible for managing more than $150 billion in assets. Her top priorities will be to: (i) maintain the World Bank’s global reputation as a prudent and innovative borrower, investor and risk manager; (ii) manage an extensive client advisory, transaction and asset management business for the Bank; (iii) engage, in her capacity as one of the World Bank’s key representatives,  with outside stakeholders including global private sector financial institutions, the financial media and the sovereign debt and reserve managers in client countries, as well as ratings agencies; and (iv) collaborate extensively with the Finance Partners throughout the World Bank Group, including with IFC and MIGA, expanding shared approaches, in particular around innovative financing for development and for key new projects.
This appointment is effective on September 28, 2015.
One other Nigerian who had held the position was Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who had held the position of Vice President/Treasurer before becoming Managing Director.  Her husband is also from Abia state.  Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, another Nigerian, held the position of Vice President, Africa.
Ms. Oteh graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, before proceeding to Harvard University where she obtained her MBA from the Harvard Business School.