President, BUHARI has approved the nomination of a former Coordinating Minister for the Economy, NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA, for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.

This followed the withdrawal of the candidacy of YONOV AGAH, Nigeria’s permanent representative to WTO, for the same position.

The election is scheduled to hold in Geneva, Switzerland in 2021 for a four-year term that would run from 2021 to 2025 after former Director-General of the organisation, ROBERTO AZEVEDO, stepped down a year to the end of his second term.

AGAH is Nigeria’s permanent representative to the WTO and the organisation’s deputy director-general.

OKONJO-IWEALA currently chairs the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.

She also sits on the board of Twitter and is a former Managing Director (operations) at the World Bank.