World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the the bank is fortunate to have recruited Ms Arunma Oteh, former director-general of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission.

It was Kim’s first public reaction to the appointment of Arunma Oteh as Vice President and Treasurer of the 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 calibre,” he added.

In Nigeria, the appointment was favourably received with many retweets as the news spread. But no one remembered to mention how this woman was maltreated and hounded by the corrupt 7th National Assembly, and a misinformed media, because she publicly accused a member of the House of Representatives of collecting money from the commission for a programme abroad he did not attend.

It was in the second year of her tumultuous reign at SEC, with members of the House of Representatives even casting doubts on her qualification for the job.

After the open showdown, the National Assembly refused to allocate funds for the SEC, with the former Senate President, David Mark, even threatening former president Goodluck Jonathan, to choose between a friendly National Assembly and Oteh.

And that was the woman, a first class computer science graduate of UNN, now being toasted across Nigeria and on social media platforms after her new appointment.

Oteh, apart from her SEC job, 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 appointment is effective on September 28, 2015.