Former Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received unanimous backing, three months after being rejected by the Trump administration to become the first woman and first African director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
As director-general, a position that wields limited formal power, Okonjo-Iweala, 66, will need to broker international trade talks in the face of persistent U.S.-China conflict; respond to pressure to reform trade rules, and counter protectionism heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What it (the WTO) needs is someone who has the capability to drive reform, who knows the trade and who does not want to see business as usual. And that is me,” she said.
With regards to export restrictions, the Newly appointed Director-General of W.T.O, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has pledged to facilitate the lifting of export restrictions among member countries to enable easier movement of goods during this COVID-19 period.
Earlier she told Reuters in an interview that her top priority would be to ensure the trade body does more to address the COVID-19 pandemic, calling the disparities in vaccine rates between rich and poor countries “unconscionable” and urging members to lift export restrictions on medical items.
EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said he looked forward to working closely with her to drive “much-needed reform of the institution”.
NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA
Okonjo-Iweala, who goes by ‘Dr. Ngozi‘, becomes one of the few female heads of a major multilateral body. When she joins the WTO’s Geneva lakeside headquarters her portrait is set to be hung beside others of men, mostly white and from rich countries.
Raised by academics, the mother-of-four earned a reputation for hard work and modesty amid the pomp of Nigeria’s governing class, acquaintances say.
“She is persistent and stubborn,” said Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of Nigeria’s central bank who worked with her when she was the country’s first female finance minister.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed her election, saying it brought “more joy and honour to the country’.
Her appointment also was welcomed by people in the streets of Nigeria’s capital Abuja where Ibe Joy, who works in marketing, said Okonjo-Iweala’s achievements were an inspiration to young women. “If she can do it, we all can do it,” said Joy.
