President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the nomination of Nigeria’s former minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the post of director general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The election is scheduled to hold in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2021 for a four-year term that would run from 2021 to 2025 after the incumbent director-general of the organisation, Mr. Roberto Azevedo, stepped down a year to the end of his second term.
Already, Azevêdo, announced that he would step down from the position on August 31, 2020, cutting his second term short by one year.
The president withdrew the candidacy of the country’s permanent representative to the WTO, Mr. Yonov Agah, for the same position.
In a document dated June 4, 2020 and addressed to all embassies and permanent missions in Addis Ababa, the federal government: “The embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and permanent mission to the African Union (AU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) presents compliments to all embassies and permanent missions in Addis Ababa and has the honour to inform that the Federal Government of Nigeria has withdrawn the candidacy of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah for election to the position of Director-General of the WTO.
“In this regard, the Mission also wishes to inform that his Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the nomination of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to replace Ambassador Agah, as Nigeria’s candidacy for the position of the Director-General of the WTO, for the term 2021-2025 at the elections scheduled to hold in Geneva, Switzerland in 2021.
“Nigeria is, therefore, pleased to request the support of esteemed AU member states as well as permanent missions and embassies in Addis Ababa in favour of the candidacy of Okonjo-Iweala.”
It described Okonjo-Iweala as a renowned global finance expert, an economist and international development professional with over 30 years of experience, having worked in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
Okonjo-Iweala currently chairs the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.
She also sits on the board of Twitter and is a former managing director (operations) at the World Bank.
