The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Nigeria’s former Coordinating Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has officially announced her intentions to seek another four-year term as head of the organisation.
Okonjo-Iweala announced her bid for a second term more than a month after 58 member countries supported a proposal from the African Group of WTO for her to head the organisation for another term.
The DG appreciated the support and said she would give her feedback to members soon.
In a statement to Reuters on Monday conveying her feedback, Okonjo-Iweala said she is ready to “compete”.
“I would like to be part of this chapter of the WTO story and I stand ready to compete for the position. For my second term, I intend to focus on delivering,” she announced.
She added that among her priorities is the decision to address “unfinished business.”
In 2020, then President Donald Trump blocked Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment – a move seen by some as an attack on an organisation he had previously described as “horrible,” announcing preference for South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee, “because the WTO needed someone with real, hands-on experience in the field”.
However, on February 15, 2021, Okonjo-Iweala secured US backing when Joe Biden defeated Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.
Speaking on the odds of getting limited chances if Trump wins the forthcoming election, she said, “I don’t focus on that because I have no control”.
While admitting that the job is difficult, Okonjo-Iweala said the geopolitical tensions among WTO’s 166 members “is a significant challenge”.
“It is tough, you know, very tough. There’s no getting away from that. But it’s also a job that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning,” she added.
The current term of Okonjo-Iweala finishes at the end of August 2025 and she is eligible for a second four-year term.
The former Nigerian minister assumed office as DG WTO on March 1, 2021, for a single term of four years.
Prior to her position at WTO, Okonjo-Iweala served twice as a minister of finance in Nigeria from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2015 and briefly acted as foreign minister in 2006.
Okonjo-Iweala also served two tenures at the World Bank, first as a development economist and vice president and corporate secretary of the World Bank Group between 1982 and 2003 and later as managing director of operations from 2007 to 2011.
