Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged Nigeria to sustain its ongoing economic reforms while adopting a cautious approach to borrowing and debt management, stressing the need to create jobs and ensure citizens experience the benefits of the reforms.
She made the remarks on Wednesday during a fireside chat with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, at the 7th Africa Emerging Markets Forum in Abuja.
The forum, themed Building Resilience Amidst Geoeconomic Uncertainties, was organised by the CBN in partnership with the Emerging Markets Forum and the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa.
Commending the CBN’s monetary and foreign exchange reforms, Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria must remain committed to macroeconomic stability while maintaining fiscal discipline.
“Nigeria needs to continue the work on overall macroeconomic reforms with a careful approach to fiscal issues, contracting of debt and debt management. Above all, Nigeria needs to focus on creating jobs and economic opportunities for a young and hungry population. Nigerians have to feel the dividends of reform in the real economy,” she said.
The WTO chief also noted that global trade had remained resilient despite geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainties, revealing that global trade in goods and services reached a record $34.65 trillion in 2025, representing a seven per cent increase from the previous year.
She dismissed concerns over widespread trade fragmentation, pointing out that about 72 per cent of global goods trade still takes place under WTO rules.
Okonjo-Iweala further urged African countries to capitalise on the ongoing diversification of global supply chains, particularly in critical minerals, by moving beyond the export of raw materials to developing regional value chains and local processing industries.
“For Africa, instead of the extract-and-export model, the goal should be higher value, higher productivity growth driven by the development of sub-regional value chains,” she said, warning that the continent could miss a significant economic opportunity if it failed to act.
Speaking at the event, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso said Africa must transform global economic disruptions into opportunities by strengthening institutions, deepening regional integration and investing more in technology.
He observed that trade fragmentation, increasingly selective capital flows and rapid advances in artificial intelligence were reshaping the global economy.
“For Africa and other emerging markets, the question is no longer whether the global order is changing, but how we turn that change from a source of vulnerability into a source of growth and shared prosperity,” Cardoso said.
He expressed concern that intra-African trade still accounts for only about 16 per cent of the continent’s total trade, calling for stronger regional value chains, improved transport infrastructure, harmonised customs systems and faster cross-border payment systems under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Cardoso also urged African countries to rely more on domestic savings, pension funds, insurance assets and diaspora investments to finance development, arguing that global investors increasingly favour economies with consistent policies, transparency and strong institutions.
