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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has become the first woman and first African to head the World Trade Organisation (WTO). ENIOLA OYEMOLADE in this piece discusses how she became the head of the Switzerland-based institution, her plans, among others.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been appointed the new chief of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) becoming the first woman to ever lead the Switzerland-based institution and the first African citizen to take on the role.
This is not the first time Okonjo-Iweala will be making history.
She was the first woman to take on the Nigerian finance ministry and the foreign ministry after she graduated from Harvard University in 1976 and then earned a PhD from MIT. Okonjo-Iweala was also the first female to run for the World Bank presidency where she spent 25 years.
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Published 17 February 2021
“ A strong WTO is vital if we are to recover fully and rapidly from the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organisation faces a great many challenges but working together we can collectively make the WTO stronger, more agile and better adapted to the realities of today.”
– Newly-appointed Director-General of World Trade Orgnisation, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s meritorious appointment on February 15, 2021 as the first female, first African Director-General of the 26-year-old Geneva-based World Trade Organisation is commendable and noteworthy. The WTO General Council agreed by consensus on Monday to select the two-term former Minister of Finance of Nigeria as the organisation’s seventh DG with effect from March 1, 2021. Her term, renewable, will expire on August 31, 2025.