The newly appointed Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has concluded her first official working visit to Nigeria.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister of Nigeria, arrived in the country Saturday, two weeks after she assumed leadership of the global body.
During the five-day visit- her first since taking on the WTO DG role- she met with President Muhammadu Buhari and other relevant ministers to discuss trade and ways of leveraging the WTO and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to improve the economy.
Her role at the organisation would be used to support women entrepreneurs, and MSMEs, and all the marginalized and excluded, she said in her meeting with President Buhari.
On the Covid-19 pandemic, Okonjo-Iweala pledged to use her role as Director General of the trade body to contribute more to the solutions of vaccines therapeutics and diagnostics, especially to the poor countries; and called on Nigeria to explore ways of manufacturing vaccines locally.
In an exclusive interview with ARISE News, Okonjo-Iweala urged Africa’s most populous country to “move away” from its reliance on fossil fuels and noted that the WTO will work towards delivering technical assistance, training and quality upgrade to unlock some challenges confronting the nation.
Rita Osakwe
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