President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated former Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the position of the Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
In an official statement from the Federal Government of Nigeria which was sent to the African Union Thursday, President withdrew the candidacy of Yonov Agah, Nigeria’s permanent representative to the WTO, for the same position.
The election is scheduled to hold in 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland. The position is run for a period of four years, it will be run from 2021-2025 after the Roberto Azevedo, former Director-General of the organization stepped down, a year to the end of his second term.
According to the letter seen by The West African Pilot News “The embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and permanent mission to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa present compliments to all embassies and permanent missions in Addis Ababa and has the honor to inform that the Federal Government of Nigeria has withdrawn the candidacy of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah for election to the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation,”
“Nigeria is therefore pleased to request the support of esteemed AU member states as well as permanent missions and embassies in Addis Ababa in favor of the candidacy of Okonjo-Iweala.”
Agah is the permanent representative of Nigeria to the WTO and the deputy director-general of the organization.
Okonjo-Iweala is the current chairs of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, a private global health partnership with the objective of increasing access to immunization in poor countries.
She is also a member of the board of Twitter and she is a former managing director (operations) at the World Bank.
