JOHANNESBURG—South Africa, Angola and Nigeria will nominate Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to be the next president of the World Bank, a South African official familiar with the discussions said Thursday.
The countries will submit Ms. Okonjo-Iweala's nomination by Friday's deadline, said the official, who declined to be named because they weren't authorized to discuss the negotiations.
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Nigerian Economy and Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
South Africa, Angola and Nigeria share an executive director's office to represent their interests at the World Bank. An aide to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan confirmed the bloc's plans to nominate her.
"Yes, there's a very strong move to nominate her, and this move is actually backed strongly by [South Africa'] President Jacob Zuma," said the aide, who spoke anonymously because he wasn't authorized to discuss the negotiations. The Nigerian Finance Ministry was unavailable for immediate comment.
The aide also said that her bid had the support of Ivory Coast, an important neighbor to Nigeria in West Africa.
The South African official wouldn't say whether South Africa had agreed to support Ms. Okonjo-Iweala's candidacy on the condition that Nigeria back South Africa's choice to lead the African Union.
In January, Nigeria was among the countries that blocked South Africa's bid to put forward its home minister to replace the African Union's president, Jean Ping of Gabon. The vote ended in a stalemate that the pan-African organization's members have yet to resolve.
World Bank member countries have until Friday to submit nominees to replace Robert Zoellick of the U.S., who said recently he will step down in June, as expected, after five years in the top job. The position traditionally goes to an American, while a European holds the top job at the International Monetary Fund, but in recent years emerging powers have lobbied for their nationals to lead both organizations.
Ms. Okonjo-Iweala worked as an economist at the World Bank before returning to Nigeria to serve as finance minister and economic coordinator under President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.
The daughter of an economics professor from Nigeria's chaotic and oil-rich delta, Ms. Okonjo-Iweala joined the World Bank after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
She joked she was a rarity at the World Bank: a "Part Two woman," a riff on jargon at the bank where "Part One" meant countries that give aid, and "Part Two" referred to countries that receive it.
After Nigeria emerged from four decades of sporadic military rule in 1999, then-World Bank President James Wolfensohn sent her home to draft a relief strategy for the country's $28 billion debt.
In 2003, she was appointed the country's finance minister, a position she returned to in July, vowing to fight corruption that costs Nigeria $15 billion a year.
In January, she helped cut much of a $7.5 billion subsidy for motor fuel that millions of Nigerians viewed as their only benefit from the country's oil wealth.
Write to Patrick McGroarty at patrick.mcgroarty@dowjones.com and Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@dowjones.com
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