Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria has been appointed as the new head of the World Trade Organization by representatives of the 164 countries which make up the organization.
She is the first woman as well as the first African to lead the only global international organization dealing with trade between nations. She will head from March 1, 2021 to August 31, 2025.
This is not the first time that Okonjo-Iweala is creating a history, she was also the first woman to serve as the finance minister of Nigeria. She had also spent 25 years in the World bank and has been its first female to run the presidency of the organization.
In her first statement, Okonjo-Iweala stated that WTO has faced many challenges amid COVID-19, but working together they can collectively make the organization stronger.
She said that we need to implement the policies to get the global economy on the track and it will be her first priority to quickly address the economy and the health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Being the first woman and the African, I absolutely feel an additional burden, I can’t lie about that, However, now it’s my duty to perform well and produce better results to make Africa and women proud,” added Okonjo.
Roberto Azevedo, who is the former head of World Trade Organization, had resigned from the post by publicly announcing through a teleconference and served till 31st Aug 2020, just one year before his 4 year term as WTO’s Director-General. From 31st Aug 2020, no one headed the organization.
Okonjo-iweala’s candidacy for the same was blocked by the former US president Donald Trump who was repeatedly backing the Korean candidate, However, the new US President Joe Biden endorsed her candidacy and supported the 66-year old from Nigeria.
On 6th Feb, she tweeted and thanked for the support from the US for the Director-General post and had had shown her gratitude to all the Nigerians, President Muhammadu Buhari and to Madam Yoo of the Republic of Korea for a hard-fought campaign.
