Buhari receives Okonjo-Iweala in Aso Villa [PHOTOS]

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, has received the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the State House in Abuja.

Ex-Minister of Finance in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala, visited the President weeks after she was nominated as the WTO DG.

Okonjo-Iweala was received at the Villa by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Ambassador Maryam Katagum and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.

She had also visited the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, where she was welcomed by the Minister, Zainab Ahmed.

In a State House press conference, Okonjo-Iweala disclosed that she had to visit the President to express gratitude toward him for the support he rendered.

She said, “I felt I had to come to Nigeria first, to say thank you, to Mr President; to thank him for his nomination and his support, he signed so many letters, he talked to so many people.

“I want to say a special thank you to young people in Nigeria. They were on social media sending so many encouraging videos.”

Replying a question on the Dangote Refinery, the largest single-train refinery in the world, she stated, “I wish we had done it years ago. If we had done it years ago and encouraged Alhaji Dangote, who is doing a good thing, we’d be producing our own fuel today.”

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was born 13 June, 1954. She is a Nigerian-American economist and international development expert who has served since March 1, 2021 as Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

She is the first woman and the first African to hold the office. She sits on the boards of Standard Chartered Bank, Twitter, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and the African Risk Capacity (ARC).

Okonjo-Iweala studied at Harvard University, graduating with an AB in Economics in 1976. In 1981, she earned her PhD in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She is married to Ikemba Iweala, a family medicine physician from Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. They have four children.