Okonjo-Iweala Gets 2025 Cressey Lifetime Award for Detection, Deterrence of Fraud

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the world’s largest anti-fraud organisation in the United States, has recognised Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the recipient of the 2025 Cressey Award, a prestigious honour celebrating lifetime achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud.

The award is named after Dr. Donald Cressey, one of the United States’ foremost fraud experts and a co-founder of the ACFE. Established in 1989, the Cressey Award represents the highest honour bestowed by the ACFE, celebrating individuals who dedicate their careers to combating fraud and promoting integrity, a statement from the organisation stated.

Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) — the first woman and first African to hold the role. An economist and international development expert with more than 40 years of experience, she previously served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, where she oversaw reforms to fight corruption and was instrumental in the Paris Club’s $30 billion debt write-off for Nigeria.

She also held senior roles at the World Bank after 25 years, including Managing Director of Operations. She served as a senior adviser at Lazard Ltd. and has been on the boards of Standard Chartered Bank and Twitter Inc. Additionally, she was the African Union (AU) and World Health Organisation’s (WHO) COVID-19 Special Envoy in 2020.

Her service included positions as chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016–2020), the African Union’s African Risk Capacity Group (2014–2020), and co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate with Lord Nicholas Stern (2014–2020).

Okonjo-Iweala was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Rockefeller Foundation. She co-chaired the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing for Pandemic Preparedness and was one of the founders of the COVAX Facility. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

A recipient of numerous honours and accolades from around the world, she was twice named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People”, and Forbes has named her one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World” eight times, most recently in 2024.

In 2020, she was named Forbes African of the Year. In 2023, she received The Kiel Institute’s Global Economy Prize and the second Lord Byron Prize. She was listed among 73 “brilliant” business influencers in the world by Condé Nast International and received the Alumnae Recognition Award from the American Association of University Women in 2022.

In 2021, she was named by Financial Times as one of the “25 Most Influential Women in the World”. She was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019, ranked by Fortune as one of the “50 Greatest World Leaders” in 2015, and featured in the Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” in 2011 and 2012.

Okonjo-Iweala is the recipient of 22 honorary degrees from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions.. In 2024, she was honoured with the Collar of the Order of Timor Leste, the country’s second highest honour.

She also received the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco from the Federative Republic of Brazil in 2023. In 2022, she received Nigeria’s second highest national honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). She has been awarded national honours by the governments of the Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire.

Okonjo-Iweala received her bachelor’s degree in economics, Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

She is a distinguished visiting fellow at Brookings and Global Public Leader at Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, she has published numerous articles and authored or co-authored several books, including “Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons” (2020), “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines” (2018) and “Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria” (2012).

According to ACFE, Okonjo-Iweala’s legacy is one of bold reform, global leadership and a relentless pursuit of integrity, stressing that it proudly recognises her extraordinary contributions to fraud prevention with the award.

The 2025 Cressey Award, will be presented at the ongoing 36th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference between June 22–27, 2025 in the US.