After several months of delay, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been appointed as the director-general of World Trade Organisation.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala makes history as the first woman and the first African to lead the WTO.
Her term starts on the 1st of March 2021.
WTO members took the decision to appoint her at a special meeting of the General Council, following a selection process that included eight candidates from around the world.
Okonjo-Iweala is the first African and first woman to lead the organisation.
She could have been installed as the boss of WTO late 2020 but the then American president Donald Trump threw its weight behind South Korea Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee.
Months after the key ambassadors of the trade organisation recommended her for the job was finally appointed the DG of the organisation on Monday.
Last week the Joe Biden administration endorsed the 66-year-old former Nigerian finance minister and World Bank chief, dismantling the only obstacle in her way.
WTO has been leaderless since Brazilian career diplomat Roberto Azevedo stepped down last August, a year ahead of schedule.
The process of picking one of eight candidates to succeed him had been expected to wrap up by November, but the administration of former US president Donald Trump blocked the consensus to appoint Okonjo-Iweala.
Okonjo-Iweala has said her priorities include getting long-blocked trade talks on fishery subsidies across the finish line and breathing life back into WTO’s Appellate Body.
Twice Nigeria’s finance minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and its first female foreign minister in a two-month stint in 2006, Okonjo-Iweala is seen as a trailblazer in her west African homeland.
She has brushed off claims she lacks experience as a trade minister or negotiator, insisting that what is needed to lead the WTO is not technical skills but “boldness, courage.”
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I am really happy for our own daughter of the soil, an African and a Nigerian in particular to have the privilege of leading the affairs of the WTO. Congratulations ma!!. I pray that God will once again Enable you to make a global Impact in carrying out your new assignment. We are proud of you ma.