Two of Nigeria’s foremost figures, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and media entrepreneur and founder of EbonyLife Media, Mo Abudu, have once again made Forbes’s world’s most powerful women list.
The names of the two Nigerian women were contained in Forbes’s 2025 world’s most powerful women list released on Wednesday.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that the list, published on the magazine’s website, recognises women who hold significant influence in business, politics, culture, and global leadership.
The duo’s name appears alongside world figures such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (No. 1), European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde (No. 2), Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi (No. 3), Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum (No. 5), and Namibia’s Prime Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (No. 79).
Forbes’s 2025 world’s most powerful women list also celebrated women’s rising influence in technology and artificial intelligence, including Lisa Su, CEO of AMD (No. 10); Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer at Alphabet (No. 12); Colette Kress of Nvidia (No. 37); Susan Li of Meta (No. 41); and Amy Hood of Microsoft (No. 16).
Other notable figures include Daniela Amodei (No. 73), co-founder and president of Anthropic, who became a self-made billionaire after the company’s valuation reached $183 billion, and Sarah Friar (No. 50), CFO of OpenAI.
The statement reads: “For all the setbacks for the world’s women in 2025—job losses that rival those of the pandemic, worsening toxicity of the online “manosphere,” a certain presidential rebuke directed to a female reporter that invoked a farm animal—the leaders and vanguards on the 2025 Forbes Power Women list stood as examples of resilience in turbulent times.
“Sanae Takaichi was elected as prime minister of Japan, becoming the first woman in history to helm the $4 trillion (GDP) nation. Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott deployed some $700 million to support historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S. AMD CEO Lisa Su struck an agreement with OpenAI to build six gigawatts of AI chips over the next several years—in a deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars and transform the AI ecosystem. And Kim Kardashian, who has more than 350 million social media followers, partnered with Nike on NikeSkim and her brand raised money at a $5 billion valuation in 2025.
“Powering massive ecosystems—from countries and commerce to education and artificial intelligence—is what the most influential women, including these four women, do across the globe on a daily basis.
“The 22nd annual Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women was determined by four main metrics: money, media, impact, and spheres of influence. For political leaders, we considered gross domestic products and populations; for corporate chiefs, revenues, valuations, and employee counts were critical. Media mentions were analyzed for all.
“The result: 100 women, including 17 newcomers, who command a collective $37 trillion in economic power and influence more than 1 billion people.”
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Okonjo-Iweala, ranked 92nd, is the current Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.
She is the first woman and first African to hold the position, which she assumed in March 2021.
Forbes described her as “an economist and international development professional” with “more than 30 years of experience working in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America.”
She previously served two terms as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2015, and briefly acted as Foreign Minister in 2006.
She also chaired the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which has “immunised more than 760 million children globally.”
Okonjo-Iweala holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 71-year-old mother of four is recognised for her belief in the power of trade to lift developing countries out of poverty and promote sustainable development.
Mo Abudu
Mo Abudu, ranked 98th, is a media entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of EbonyLife Media.
She launched EbonyLife TV in 2006; the network now airs in more than 49 countries, including the UK and the Caribbean.
According to Forbes, she helped EbonyLife secure major partnership deals with Sony Pictures Television, AMC Networks, and Netflix, the first African media company to sign a multi-title film and TV agreement with the streaming giant.
In November 2025, the company launched a new digital platform, EbonyLife ON Plus, available on Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Born in London, Abudu spent part of her childhood in Nigeria with her grandmother before returning to the UK.
She is described by Forbes as “one of the most influential women in global media.”
