Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonji- Iweala has been appointed into a seven member High-Level Group on Governance of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

A statement released by Prof. Ben Maloney, the Communications Officer at the Commonwealth Secretariat said the High Level Group would make resolutions and recommendations on governance of the Secretariat.

“At their last summit in Malta, Commonwealth heads of government directed the Secretary-General to form the Group. Today members are discussing the scope of the group’s work and the areas of governance it will examine over the coming months,” the statement read.

It continued: “The process is open and the High Level Group reports to the heads. The issue of succession of the Head of the Commonwealth is not part of the group’s mandate.”

The group which is chaired by Anote Tong, the former President of Kiribati from 2003 to 2016 also has Lord Howell, former British Energy Secretary, Louisse Frechette, former United Nation Secretary-General and Robert Hill, former Australian Defence Minister as members.

Other members of the group are Dame Miller, former Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados and Dr. George Vella, former Foreign Minister of Malta.

The group will operate independently of the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat and will report directly and only to the heads of Commonwealth governments.