WTO: Okonjo-Iweala for another 4-year tenure
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has emerged as the sole candidate for the job of Director-General at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The WTO said the former Nigerian finance minister agreed to a second term for the organisation’s top job.
“Nominations for Director-General closed; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala confirmed as sole candidate,” the WTO said in a statement on Saturday.
“Ambassador Petter Ølberg of Norway, Chair of the General Council, informed WTO members on 9 November that no further nominations for the position of Director-General had been received by the deadline of 8 November and that the incumbent Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is therefore the only candidate for the role.
“Director-General Okonjo-Iweala confirmed her willingness to serve a second four-year term in the role in a letter to the Chair on 16 September. On 8 October, the WTO formally commenced the process for appointing its next Director-General, with members given until 8 November to submit nominations.”
The WTO said the chair of the General Council will communicate the next steps in this process in the coming days.
Okonjo-Iweala’s present term will end on 31 August 2025.
The former minister emerged as the WTO director-general on February 15, 2021, becoming the first woman and also African to lead the trade organisation.