In a significant endorsement of Nigeria’s ongoing economic reforms, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has declared that President Bola Tinubu’s policy direction is placing the nation on firmer financial ground.
Okonjo-Iweala, who once oversaw Nigeria’s fiscal policy as Finance Minister, met privately with President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa on Thursday. She later joined First Lady Oluremi Tinubu to launch the Women Exporters Fund, a joint WTO–International Trade Centre initiative that aims to enhance the competitiveness of Nigerian women entrepreneurs.
The programme will provide technical, financial, and developmental support to 146 selected Nigerian women from a pool of 67,000 applicants. Sixteen of these are part of the “Booster Track” for established businesses, while 100 others will receive $5,000 each and one year of mentorship. The rest will benefit from personalised growth strategies.
“This is just the beginning,” Okonjo-Iweala asserted. She believes that empowering women-led enterprises will ripple into job creation, household income growth, and national economic diversification.
Speaking on the nation’s fiscal state, she noted, “You cannot really improve an economy unless it’s stable. The President and his team have worked hard to stabilize the economy. The reforms have been in the right direction. The next step is growth, and alongside that, building social safety nets so those feeling the pinch of reforms can get support.”
Her comments underline the need for reform policies to run parallel with welfare measures to safeguard low-income Nigerians from economic shocks.