Dr. Vera Songwe is an acclaimed economist and banking executive who currently serves as serves as a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative. In 2022, she was appointed chairwoman of the board of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF), a finance mechanism aimed at improving the liquidity of African sovereign debt.

She had, previously, worked for the World Bank from 1998 to 2015. The Cameroonian-born economist had also served as Western and Central Africa’s regional director for the International Finance Corporation between 2015 and 2017. Interestingly, Dr. Songwe was the first woman to head the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the level of Under Secretary-General.

In this brief interview conducted originally published by Ruth Lago of “AfricaNews, Dr. Vera Songwe speaks on the need for African countries to embrace diversification of their respective country’s economies to bring about true, widespread prosperity. She also calls for African governments to create opportunities for young people to not only use technology but also invent technology for Africa’s advancement.

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