Okonjo-Iweala secures support for second term as WTO Director-General

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has garnered unprecedented support to serve a second term at the 164 member-states trade organisation.

In an official media release after July 22 meeting, the WTO General Council indicated that fifty-eight (58) of the 164 member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have voiced support for a proposal from the African Group backing incumbent Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to serve a second term.

As stipulated by the guidelines, the Director General can serve two terms. Almost all members pointed to all the efforts and qualities of Okonjo-Iweala and her contributions to the organisation which enhanced a lot of progress and development.

Okonjo-Iweala, whose tenure as the DG due to end on August 31, 2025, revealed her plans to work with other members of the organisation to restructure the global trade body.

“The African Group requests that the current Director-General make herself available to serve a second term, and has proposed that the process of reappointing the Director-General should be started as soon as possible,” according to the statement by the world trade body.

“Fifty-eight members, several speaking on behalf of groups of members, took the floor to comment and express their support for the African Group proposal. They called on DG Okonjo-Iweala to make her intentions regarding a second term known as soon as possible. Most of these members praised the DG’s hard work and her achievements during her first term,” it further added.

Okonjo-Iweala, 70, said she was very grateful for the support from members. “Everything that I have accomplished, we’ve accomplished together,” she said. The DG said that she took the call of members very seriously and was favourably inclined. She said she would get back to members very soon regarding her intentions.

Some WTO rules and procedures also need to be revisited, including the procedure for appointing director-general,” she earlier noted in her speech.

The new WTO boss added that the trade body’s rulebook needed to reflect 21st-century realities such as e-commerce, the digital economy, the post-pandemic and the current geopolitical changes.

The former Nigerian Finance Minister navigated stiff opposition to become the first woman and the African to serve as WTO Director-General. Okonjo-Iweala, the seventh WTO boss, took office on March 1, 2021, for a single term of four years which will expire on August 31, 2025. She is eligible for a second term.

She served two terms as Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) under the political leadership of President Olusengun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan respectively.

She also briefly acted as Foreign Minister in 2006, the first woman to hold both positions. The skilled negotiator had a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist, rising to the number two position of Managing Director of Operations.

Biographical records show she was born into a royal family in Delta State, her father Professor Chukwuka Okonjo became the Eze (King) from the Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Ukwu. With high aspirations, Okonjo-Iweala studied at prestigious Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with an AB in Economics in 1976.

In 1981, she earned her PhD in regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a thesis titled Credit policy, rural financial markets, and Nigeria’s agricultural development. She received an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) that supported her doctoral studies.

With a solid education and broad experience, combined with her performance during the first term, 58 member-states of the WTO has already thrown their support behind her to head the Geneva-based body.

The WTO is the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations. The goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. It currently has 164 members, monitoring each other’s practices and regulations against a set of standard trading rules in order to improve transparency and avoid protectionism.

In addition, WTO works to build the trading capacity of developing and least-developed countries, helping them integrate and benefit from the multilateral trading system. This is an essential part of the work. The trading system has to be inclusive, with the benefits of trade reaching as many as possible around the world, particularly in the poorest countries.

The WTO provides its members with a tried and tested system of shared rules and principles to support economic cooperation and thereby boost growth, development and job creation around the world.

It provides a forum for members to raise, discuss and potentially solve the complex problems that they face. There is huge value in the system of World Trade Organisation.