Photo : DFID - UK Department for International Development, CC BY 2.0
Vera Songwe
Economist, first woman to lead the UN Economic Commission for Africa
Born in 1968-08-31
Cameroonian roots : Born in Kenya, Vera Songwe is a Cameroonian national and went to school at Our Lady of Lourdes College, near Bamenda.
Related city : Bamenda
Who are they?
Vera Songwe was born on 31 August 1968 in Nairobi, Kenya. A graduate in economics and political science from the University of Michigan, she earned a doctorate in mathematical economics at the Université catholique de Louvain. After the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, she worked at the World Bank from 1998 to 2015, notably as Country Director for Senegal, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania, then led the International Finance Corporation for West and Central Africa from 2015 to 2017.
What made them famous
Appointed by António Guterres in April 2017, she became Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on 3 August 2017, at Under-Secretary-General level, the first woman to hold the post. During the COVID-19 pandemic she emerged as one of the leading voices for African access to vaccines. She left the ECA in 2022.
Key facts
- In 2013 Forbes listed her among the 20 Young Power Women in Africa.
- In 2021 the G20 appointed her to its High Level Independent Panel on financing pandemic preparedness.
- In March 2026 Pope Leo XIV appointed her to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.