Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the current Director- General of the World Trade Organization assumed office on March 1, 2021. That’s few less than two months ago. So far, she has spent over in about 55 days or so, she would have spent exactly 100 days at the apex office of WTO and still counting. Perhaps one can argue that it is still would be too early to access her achievements so far and keep track of it. However, if her speech made during her inauguration is any indication, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has already given a hint to the direction she intended to focus early in her administration of the global apex trade body.
HER IMPACT: One of the major impacts so far recorded is the fact of her emergence as the first-ever African and first-ever female to occupy the revered position of DG of WTO. By this singular achievement, NOI, as she is popularly referred to by friends, has successfully shattered the myth that some top positions in such important global bodies are the exclusive preserves of men. She has successfully shattered the glass ceiling in a male-dominated environment and brought immense hope to women in Nigeria, Africa, and worldwide who aspire to top leadership positions within organizations and governments.
In an interview conducted in ‘The Conversation Africa: Wale Fatade asked Dr. Monica Orisadare, an assistant Professor of economics and Director of the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria about Okonjo-Iweala’s achievement and what it means and she gave a very succinct and incisive response.
“Due to NOI uncommon achievement, hope is now on the horizon for the possibility of a female UN Scribe in no distant future – a position Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala had once aspired to.”
WHAT LIES IN STORE FOR HER: in her inaugural speech as the new DG of WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala gave a hint to the direction her leadership will take. According to her speech reported in ‘Current Thoughts in Trade’ an online news media that focuses on global trade Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala explains that: “For the global economy to return to sustained growth, the global community will need to get a tight grip on the pandemic by intensifying cooperation to make equitable and affordable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics a key plank of the recovery. With new COVID variants spreading rapidly all over, we must have a sense of urgency to getting control of the pandemic. The WTO can and must play a more forceful role in exercising its monitoring function and encouraging members to minimize or remove export restrictions and prohibitions that hinder supply chains for medical goods and equipment. The International Trade Centre recently reported that up to 100 countries still maintain export restrictions and prohibitions.”
The new DG of WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala further explained that “WTO Members have a further responsibility to reject vaccine nationalism and protectionism. They should rather intensify cooperation on promising new vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. In her own words, “There should be a ‘third way’ to broaden access through facilitating technology transfer within the framework of multilateral rules, to encourage research and innovation while at the same time allowing licensing agreements that help scale up manufacturing of medical products.”
She further stressed the need to reach an agreement on pressing issues such as finalizing the fisheries subsidies negotiations, leaving MC12 as the venue to conclude on modalities for implementation. “Reform of the dispute settlement system, which has been a central element in guaranteeing security and predictability of the multilateral trading system, is of utmost importance to the membership”. She identified that “Some Members have criticized the way it functions and demanded reforms. “It will be important to agree on the nature of these reforms, flesh them out, and develop a work program for implementation that can be advanced at MC12.” The new DG said.
There are diversities of issues and challenges before WTO that the new DG must tackle head-on as she has identified. However, how she approaches these issues and the resulting outcome will be vital to the success of her leadership.
ECONOMIC REFORMS FOR NIGERIA AND AFRICANS:
As an organization at the apex of negotiating trade deals that impact nations, Nigeria and other African nations are very expectant and hopeful that the emergence of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the new Director- General of the World Trade Organization, will directly benefit African nations in terms of fairer trade deals beneficial to her people.
Reuben Abati in his article in Proshareng.com asked the pertinent question: What does her (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Oweala) new status mean for Africa, Nigeria, and African trade in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCTA), beyond the symbolism of her African- ness?
To this end, Dr. Okonjo-Oweala has promised to change the rule book of WTO to reflect modern realities and impact member countries economy in many ways as itemized below:
E-COMMERCE & MSMEs: According to her, ‘The WTO rule book is outdated, and its rules lag behind those of several regional and bilateral trade agreements which are incorporating a lot of innovations. The rulebook must be updated to take account of 21st-century realities such as e-commerce and the digital economy. The pandemic has heightened the importance and accelerated the role of e-commerce, which is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. E-commerce offers important opportunities for the inclusivity of MSMEs and women in international trade, especially in developing countries. To make it possible for some developing and least developed countries to participate in the e-commerce negotiations, we must partner with governments and other organizations to bridge the digital divide. Success in the e-commerce negotiations could provide an impetus for reviving more broadly the negotiations on Trade in Services, a sector of increasing importance in the economy of most Members.’
Nigeria and African countries fall within the ‘developing economy’ index. Going by her records in Nigeria, Africa, and other parts of the world where she has left a giant footprint in economic reforms, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is reputed for her innovative economic reforms, the establishment of digital platforms, and systems that enhance sectorial and economic transformations.
She demonstrated this during her time as the Minister for Finance and the Coordinating Minister coordinating minister for the Economy, during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure. Ac, according to Wikipedia, “Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala successfully set up Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS), including the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), helping to curtail corruption in the process. As of 31 December 2014, the IPPIS platform had eliminated 62,893 ghost workers from the system and saved the government about $1.25 billion in the process”.
It is quite impressive and a solid testimony of how she Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala deployed technology and digital solutions to solve the economic challenge on a nationwide scale and with outstanding results as proof. There is little doubt that she will repeat a similar feat at WTO, only this time she will be doing it on a global scale.
SMALL SCALE FARMERS: Part of the new DG of WTO’s proposed reforms will also directly impact farmers. According to her, “Agriculture is particularly important for many developing and least developing countries. Improving market access for export products of interest to these countries is of paramount importance, as is dealing with trade- distorting domestic support. The growing domestic support entitlements of members must be addressed to level the playing field, to provide opportunities for small scale farmers” she said.
NOI’s proposed agricultural reform is in sync with the Federal Government’s focus on reforming Nigeria’s agriculture and is expected to positively benefit Nigeria’s agricultural sector. Agriculture is Nigeria’s biggest economic sector. And as the oil economy gradually dwindles, there are hopes to shift to agriculture as the main source of revenue for the government and the smallholder farmers scattered across the length and breadth of Nigeria’s rural areas.
Can Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala deliver on expectation and her promises by meeting the yearning of 164 member nations of WTO? Going by her records, NOI certainly possesses the training and experience needed to move WTO to a more functional world body whose vision and operations meet 21st-century demands.
Many have accused the World Trade Organization of being very slow in decision making and cite the fisheries charter that has lasted about 20 years as a case in point. That slow pace of doing things will certainly not change overnight. But if the new DG of WTO has her way in successfully changing the Rule Book of WTO, the possibility of speeding things up will increase many folds and setting a new record of speedy decision- making and implementation of agreements reached by members; as well as facilitating new methods of deploying ICT in the operations of WTO as she envisioned, NOI is certainly set to set more record-breaking achievements that the whole world is earnestly waiting and desiring from WTO’s new boss
