Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Okonjo Iweala Tipped For World Bank Presidency

Nigeria's finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is among the candidates being proposed to take over the presidency of the World Bank, with the incumbent Robert Zoellick, having served notice that he would step down in June.

Ngozi was a former managing director of the bank until late last year when he resigned to become Nigeria's finance minister, for the second time in less than a decade. She is the favorite of Nancy Birdsall, head of the Center for Global Development, who stressed that the selection process "needs to be competitive" and truly open to any candidate.

It is not clear yet whether Ngozi would dump Nigeria for the World bank job.

The World Bank has promised the selection process will be "merit-based and transparent" and open to candidates from its 187 member nations.

The deadline for nominations is March 23. The World Bank has set a goal of picking the new president by the World Bank-IMF meetings on April 20-22.