WTO seeks to empower vulnerable Nigerians- Okonjo- Iweala

Director General of the World Trade Organization ( WTO), Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, on Tuesday, said the organization is working on partnership to empower vulnerable Nigerians.

The WTO DG, while speaking with State House Journalists after meeting with President Bola Tinubu, noted that the empowerment us part of the organization’s efforts to cushion the effect of the current sufferings in Nigeria.

“ We are aware that Nigerians are currently going through very difficult times, things are hard and the

The former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, who said he did not meet with the president in her capacity as WTO boss, was accompanied by former Minister of State for Health and ministerial nominee, Mohammed Pate.

She however, revealed that the meeting was about how to help Nigeria to alleviate the suffering of the people.

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

She said: “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 that could be put in place to make sure that we we had a conversation on trying to look at 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 who are bearing the brunt of some of the suffering in the country.”

She noted that they also talked about investment for the longer term in several sectors in the country including the pharmaceutical industry.

“We also talked about the what type of support the WTO, the World Trade Organization can bring.

“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.

“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, create more jobs?

“That’s what’s needed now in Nigerians 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.”

Also speaking, Pate, a former Chief Executive Officer of GAVI, the global vaccine alliance, corroborated the remarks of the WTO Director General, adding that Tinubu is actively working to ameliorate the suffering of citizens.

He assured that the difficulty is transitory, noting that the president is committed to all intervention measures.

Pate spoke on plans to promote grassroot programmes to support women and youth as well as prioritizing health particularly health insurance, primary health care and hospital care.