Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Quotes

Investments are like trains, and if you miss one, don’t worry because another one will come down the line.

Africa offers the highest return on investment in the world.

Don't pass up something that's attractive today because you think you will find something way more attractive tomorrow.

The trouble with opportunity is, it never announces when it comes. It's only after it's gone, you'd realize that you missed it.

I bought into Saks as a personal investment because, when I was a young man and went to America for the first time, it seemed to me that Saks was like a cathedral of retail. I never dreamt that I could one day be a part of it. And now I am.

It isn't as important to buy as cheap as possible as it is to buy at the right time.

Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.

I suppose if I were younger, I would be investing in Africa.

If you wait for the right time or the good times to start a business, you wait all your life.

A study of economics usually reveals that the best time to buy anything is last year.

Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them.

I have always been bullish about India's potential. I still am, and I feel India is a country that really has an enormous amount of potential and has the human capital to succeed.

When will you learn that the time to buy a thing is when you find what you want? If you go back the next year and try to get more, they will try to sell you something else.

I had no idea about running a hotel, but as an investment, as a property in real estate, it was very interesting because we got a great deal. Talking to my mom, I said, 'Listen, we're going to buy this, but I need somebody to run it.' So I asked my mom, 'Are you willing to do it?'

We take dispassionate view of our investments. Does it mean that we are looking out to monetise the investment? That is not correct. But if we get an offer that we cannot refuse, as I say, then it is not that we are not, that we will still hold on to the investment.

Our future lies to the east and south, in Asia and Africa.

The arguments of waste are heavily overdone, because what you do is to accelerate the infrastructure that you have to build anyway, like airports and roads, and in this case it happens much faster. So speaking of a roadmap, without being specific, I would still go for Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East - that's what our clients are really interested in.

If you think education is expensive, try estimating the cost of ignorance.

If you’re too rigid in your thinking you may miss some wonderful opportunities for storytelling.

Or is there no such thing as 'too late'? Is there only 'late' and is 'late' always better than 'never'? I don't know.

Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd, Shall never find it more.

I think everything is happening all the time, but if you don't put yourself in the path of it, you miss it.

It is strange to think that we might have crossed paths, and still not have known what we were missing.

The idea that you try to time purchases based on what you think business is going to do in the next year or two, I think that's the greatest mistake that investors make because it's always uncertain. People say it's a time of uncertainty. It was uncertain on September 10th, 2001, people just didn't know it. It's uncertain every single day. So take uncertainty as part of being involved in investment at all. But uncertainty can be your friend. I mean, when people are scared, they pay less for things. We try to price. We don't try to time at all.