Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), stated on Wednesday, January 22, that Nigeria must pivot its economic strategy from stabilization toward job creation and the aggressive pursuit of global investments.
She shared these insights during a fireside chat at Nigeria House on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
As you said, some good reforms are being pursued right now. I think they need to yield into job creation,” she said.
“This is what I also said to His Excellency, Mr President, that we have to move from stabilisation to creating jobs because that’s where we are lacking.”
While the WTO Director-General acknowledged that the federal government’s reforms are moving in the right direction, she warned that success will not happen overnight.
She further stressed the urgent need for the government to map out specific opportunities to maximize the impact of these changes.
“map where the opportunities are.
What I’d like to see us doing is continue to try to attract investment into the country because there’s an opportunity now to attract all these supply chains,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
“So if there’s one thing I’d like to see, everything we can do to show Nigeria as a country worthy of investing in, that’s what we should be doing.
And we should deliberately have a strategy to go after those investments, to go after investors, to go to China, the United Nations (UN) — whatever it takes to let them come and invest in our country.”
The Director-General highlighted the global trend of supply chain diversification, noting that while Asia remains a primary destination for shifting capital, Nigeria has a window of opportunity to attract these investors through targeted reforms:
“So a lot of the diversification is away from China into Asia and India is another move,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
Nigeria shouldn’t just be a consumer of solar energy; we should be its architect. By shifting from importing to local manufacturing, we can capture a significant share of the market and power our future from within.
“We have the renewable capacity, the fashion thing, let them come and invest. Every time we buy a piece of wax, I spend time sometimes to see where it is made.”
She asked the country to attract investment to manufacture the product “at home rather than elsewhere”.
Let’s try to attract them. So that’s what I would do. This is really my passion and pharmaceuticals, there’s a chance there as well.”
The Director General noted that Nigeria is home to high-potential supply chains designed to become global magnets for strategic investment
