The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged the Nigerian government to actively target global investors and relocating supply chains to cut import dependence, expand manufacturing and create jobs.
She spoke on Wednesday at Nigeria House during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
At a panel session titled “From Scale to Capital: Financing Nigeria’s Role as Africa’s Digital Trade and Infrastructure Anchor,” Okonjo-Iweala said rising geopolitical tensions—especially between the United States and China—have accelerated supply chain diversification. The Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Dr Oludapo Olusi, also joined the panel.
She noted that firms increasingly adopt “China+1” sourcing to reduce single-country risk, even as China remains central to many global value chains. Tariffs and trade restrictions, she added, now push companies to rethink dependence on dominant suppliers and to relocate or diversify production hubs.
According to her, these shifts create a clear opening for Nigeria to secure a share of global supply chains, provided the country markets itself aggressively to investors.
She welcomed ongoing reforms but stressed the need to translate them into employment. “We must move from stabilisation to job creation,” she said, urging authorities to map opportunities and pursue investors directly in markets such as China and the United States.
Okonjo-Iweala called for targeted strategies to attract manufacturing in sectors where Nigeria holds advantages. She cited solar panels, fashion and textiles, and pharmaceuticals, arguing that Nigeria should manufacture more at home rather than rely on imports. “We have the renewable capacity. Let investors produce here,” she said, adding that many textiles worn in Nigeria today are still made abroad.