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Nigeria's Okonjo-Iweala Appointed as Head of World Trade Body

The World Trade Organization has announced that Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been appointed its new director-general. Okonjo-Iweala is a former finance minister and World Bank executive. Her  candidature for the top post at the WTO saw her pitted against Kenya's former foreign minister Amina Mohamed, Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri of Saudi Arabia, and Liam Fox, a UK politician. With the candidates down to two, Okonjo-Iweala was up against the South Korean candidate, who later bowed out. Okonjo-Iweala was the overwhelming favourite for WTO-member countries, and she would have been appointed in 2020 had it not been for the Donald Trump administration objecting to her appointment. Now under the President Joe Biden administration, she's been given her the thumbs up for the post, making her the first woman and the first African to hold that office. 

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Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (file photo).

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