The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called on the Federal Government to establish social safety nets for poor Nigerians struggling with the economic hardship caused by President Bola Tinubu’s reforms.
She made this call after meeting with President Tinubu at the Aso Villa in Abuja on Thursday.
While commending the President for stabilizing the economy through reforms like petrol subsidy removal and unification of foreign exchange windows, Okonjo-Iweala emphasized the need for the government to support vulnerable citizens.
“We think that the President and his team have worked hard to stabilize the economy. You cannot really improve an economy unless it is stable. So, he has to be given the credit for the stability of the economy. The reforms have been in the right direction,” she said.
However, she stressed that the next step should be to grow the economy and provide social safety nets for those affected by the reforms.
“What is needed next is growth; we now need to grow the economy and we need to put in social safety nets so that people who are feeling the pinch of the reforms can also have some support to weather the hardship. That’s the next step,” Okonjo-Iweala added.
The meeting between Tinubu and Okonjo-Iweala occurred just before the end of her first term as WTO Director-General on August 31, 2025, and the beginning of her second term on September 1, 2025.
Okonjo-Iweala made history in 2021 as the first African and first woman to lead the 164-nation-member WTO.
During the meeting, Okonjo-Iweala also briefed President Tinubu on the Women’s Exporters’ Fund for the digital economy, a joint initiative by the WTO and the International Trade Centre to support women in weathering economic challenges and creating jobs.
“We came to brief him about something very joyful that we did today with the help of the first lady. We launched a Women’s Exporters’ Fund for the digital economy,” she said.
According to Dr Okonjo-Iweala, the fund supports women to weather economic storms and create jobs for themselves. Nigeria was one of four countries globally selected for this program, with 146 Nigerian women receiving grants and mentoring.
“We have 67,000 Nigerian women who applied for this, and 146 of them won, and they are going to have money disbursed directly to them,” Okonjo-Iweala explained.
The beneficiaries include 16 women who will receive technical and business support for 18 months to scale up their businesses, and 100 women who will each receive $5,000 to start and strengthen their businesses over 12 months.
“16 of them won what we called the Booster Track; those who already have businesses, but their businesses would be scaled up. They would receive technical and business support from the WTO and the ITC for 18 months. Another 100 would get $5,000 each to start and strengthen their businesses, with 12-month reforms,” Okonjo-Iweala added.
