Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has emerged as the sole candidate for the role of director-general at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The WTO announced that the former Nigerian finance minister has agreed to serve a second term in the organisation’s top position.
“Nominations for Director-General have closed; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been confirmed as the sole candidate,” the WTO stated in a release on Saturday.
“Ambassador Petter Ølberg of Norway, Chair of the General Council, informed WTO members on 9 November that no additional nominations for the position of Director-General had been received by the deadline of 8 November. 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.”
The WTO added that the Chair of the General Council will provide updates on the next steps in this process in the coming days.
“The process was overseen by the General Council Chair in accordance with the WTO’s ‘Procedures for the Appointment of Directors-General,’” the organisation noted.
Okonjo-Iweala’s current term will conclude on 31 August 2025.
The former minister assumed her role as WTO director-general on 15 February 2021, becoming the first woman and first African to lead the 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 twice as finance minister (2003–2006 and 2011–2015) and briefly as the country’s first female foreign minister in 2006. The Delta State-born leader has shrugged off criticism regarding her experience as a trade minister or negotiator.