The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged the Federal Government to implement social safety nets for poor Nigerians affected by President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms.
Following a meeting with the president at the Aso Villa on Thursday, she commended the reforms, including the removal of petrol subsidies and the unification of foreign exchange windows.
In a discussion with journalists, the WTO boss stated, “We think that the President and his team has worked hard to stabilised 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.”
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She then outlined the next steps for the government, adding: “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 supports to weather the hardship. That’s the next step.”
Okonjo-Iweala also briefed the president on the launch of a new initiative for women.2 “We came to brief him about something very joyful that we did today with the help of the first lady,” she said.
“We launched a Women’s Exporters’ Fund for the digital economy. This is a fund that is jointly managed by the World Trade Organisation and the International Trade Centre and support women to weather the storms of the economy and create jobs for themselves.”
The initiative is part of the broader effort to create a social safety net.
“It is part of the thinking of social safety net and what we can do to support Nigerian women to contribute more to the economy and to themselves,” Okonjo-Iweala explained.
She highlighted that Nigeria was one of four countries selected globally for the initiative.
“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.”
She further detailed the specifics of the fund: “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 supports 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.”
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