WTO appoints first woman, African head
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed on Monday to head the World Trade Organization (WTO), becoming the first woman and first African to take on the role amid disagreement over how the body decides cases involving billions in sales and thousands of jobs. Okonjo-Iweala, 66, was named director-general by representatives of the 164 countries that make up the WTO, which deals with the rules of trade between nations. She said in a statement that her first priority would be quickly addressing the economic and health consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and to “implement the policy responses we need to get the global economy going again”. Okonjo-Iweala has been Nigeria’s finance minister and, briefly, foreign minister, and has had a 25-year career at the World Bank.
GENEVA: Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed on Monday as the first woman and first African head of the beleaguered World Trade Organization, saying a stronger WTO would be vital for the global coronavirus recovery.
The WTO called a virtual special general council meeting at which member states officially selected the former Nigerian finance minister and World Bank veteran as the global trade body’s new director-general.
She will take up her post on March 1 and her term, which is renewable, will run until August 31, 2025. The near-paralysed institution desperately needs a kick-start - something OkonjoIweala immediately addressed after being confirmed in the job.