Okonjo-Iweala: Tinubu is committed to improving welfare of citizens

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), says President Bola Tinubu is committed to improving the lives of Nigerians.

Okonjo-Iweala spoke on Tuesday after a meeting with Tinubu at the Aso Villa in Abuja.

The former minister of finance who noted that her visit was not in the capacity of the WTO DG, said she and the president pledged their readiness to improve the welfare of the citizens.

She added that her conversation with the president centred around formulating approaches to stimulate job creation, foster women’s empowerment, and bolster digital trade within the country’s economy.

“So, this was not really an official WTO mission, but we were able to engage with Mr President to talk about what are the kinds of programmes that we could put in place,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

“We had a conversation on trying to look at the community and grassroots programmes that can be put in place to create jobs for young people, trying to support women and children who are those bearing the brunt of some of the sufferings in the country.

“We also talked about the what type of support the World Trade Organisation can bring.”

Okonjo-Iweala noted that the WTO is already working in Nigeria to improve women’s economic empowerment.

“We are already working in Nigeria with women in particular, who own small and medium enterprises to try to help them upgrade the quality of their products, whether it’s in the agricultural area, textiles, and in other areas so that they can sell more internationally,” she said.

“We’re trying to help them with digital trade. The wave of the future is digital trade. So, how do we train and empower Nigerian women and small and medium enterprises throughout the country, to create more jobs?

“That’s what’s needed now in Nigeria to alleviate these difficult conditions that they are in. So, that is what we discussed with Mr President and as the director general of the World Trade Organization, we’re going to try to do the most we can to support Nigerians at this particular time.”