Okonjo-Iweala Emerges As Sole Candidate For WTO DG Position

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria has emerged as the sole candidate for the top position of Director General at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Ambassador Petter Ølberg of Norway, who is the Chairman of the General Council of the WTO announced on Saturday, November 9, 2024, that the former Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Nigerian economy has agreed to serve a second term in the organisation’s top position.

Ølberg said; “Nominations for Director-General have closed; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been confirmed as the sole candidate”.

He said that no additional nominations for the position of Director General had been received by the deadline of 8 November, adding that as such, the incumbent Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, remains the only candidate.

“Director-General Okonjo-Iweala confirmed her willingness to serve a second four-year term in a letter to the Chair on 16 September.

“On 8 October, the WTO formally began the process of appointing its next Director-General, with members given until 8 November to submit nominations,” he said.

The WTO added that the Chair of the General Council will provide updates on the next steps in this process in the coming days.

It said; “The process was overseen by the General Council Chair in accordance with the WTO’s ‘Procedures for the Appointment of Directors-General”.

Okonjo-Iweala’s current term will conclude on 31 August 2025 as she assumed her role as WTO Director General on 15 February 2021, becoming the first woman and first African to head the world trade body.

Upon her confirmation as WTO DG in 2021, she identified her priorities as concluding long-stalled trade negotiations on fishery subsidies and revitalising the WTO’s Appellate Body.

A trailblazer in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala served as finance minister from 2003 to 2006 and later from 2011 to 2015 and briefly as Nigeria’s first female Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006.