Take a fresh look at your lifestyle.

Economy: Nigeria must brace up or … – WTO DG, Okonjo Iweala

Ayodele Olalere

Following her appointment as the first woman and African to become the Director-General of World Trade Organisation, Nigeria-born Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in a virtual Interview anchored by Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has expressed her mind on the challenges facing Africa economy and Nigeria in particular.

The DG spoke at the virtual 2021 Eghingbeti Lagos Economic Summit held at Eko Hotel and Suites. According to Iweala, Nigeria must brace up to solve its economic challenges or be left behind by other countries.

Excerpts:

How has it been with you coming as the first African Director-General of WTO and the first woman?

It’s been so wonderful, and fantastic. I want to start by humbly thanking Mr. President and all Nigerians for your support and encouragement throughout this process, which has been very difficult. It took nine months, it’s been very tough and competition of uncertainty. Nigerians have been absolutely incredible,  sending me messages of support. Some people have been releasing video and sending them. I am greatly blessed and happy it came out well. We are trying to show what Nigeria and Africans can do in such an International position. It’s going to be challenging but I am ready because in every challenge, there is a possibility.  So, it’s good to see what can be done with countries around the world.

When you sit back and look forward, what will a successful Africa look like and where do you think Lagos can sit in that context given the fact that Lagos is the largest megacity in Africa and economic hub of Nigeria?

From my point of view, one of the most important things a successful Africa should look at is the demographics of Africa. When you have more than 60% of your population that is 30 years older, then you have to worry about job creation.

A successful Africa is the one that is able to create jobs for its citizens. I mean what can be called decent work, as I said in my WTO acceptance speech. That is the biggest issue the continent has to face, similarly to Lagos State. The issue of employment of young people has to be addressed because if they are not, it will lead to so many social unrests. A successful Africa, Nigeria and Lagos State is the one that creates a job for its citizens and this means three things.

In our country, Nigeria, and Lagos State, we have what will create modern decent jobs for our people, as we have opportunities to do that. What makes it difficult for our country is because we are still a raw material-based kind of economy. I know Lagos is a manufacturing hub but if you look at the whole of Africa, we are still
not there. We have primary products like fossil fuel, diamond, copper or agriculture products like Cocoa. We have to get away from a position where we are exporting raw materials to the one we are exporting raw values.

For Lagos, Nigeria and the continent, we have to ask ourselves questions, how do we industrialised Africa. Africa imports more than 90% of pharmaceutical drugs that we use on the continent and that is an opportunity for us to manufacture those products.

We have a population of 1.3 billion equivalent of China and with the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, which is now being implemented, it means we are aiming at a huge economic market. It means Lagos and Nigeria need to take advantage of such a big market to make Nigeria, not just a consumer market where other people sell goods but also a big manufacturing centre that sells goods to other countries.
That is a dream. The agenda 2063 of the African Union looks very much like how we can get there.

Aside from manufacturing, you have the creative art that you mentioned. Lagos is one of the most exciting cities, and one of the most difficult. So, we need to ask ourselves, how can we make the creative arts and the movie industry create more jobs for the youths.

You mentioned medical services, I want you to know that Ghana is planning to make Ghana a medical tourism hub and I was speaking with their Minister of Finance on how they can collaborate with Nigeria so they can focus on some specialities and we also focus on some. There are so many exciting opportunities, which Lagos can create for our youths.

Looking at Lagos for the next 10 years, what are those pitfalls that we need to avoid and things that can make us competitive?

The future is changing and very dynamic. The future is artificial intelligence and the digital economy. It’s here to stay, either Nigeria, Lagos State get on board or we get left behind.

You mentioned broadband Internet access to all household, this is what they have in Korea, the whole place is wired and if we can do that, everybody can be on the Internet.

I think the biggest challenge for Lagos State is infrastructure. I mean the infrastructure of the future, not just roads. To have a telecommunication infrastructure and broadbands, we also need electricity and energy.

One of the things you have to make sure the state takes on board is how to have a steady sustainable supply of electricity. We should be able to look at how to move on to renewables and grid because the world is turning grid rapidly.

For the Lagos of the future, the population is growing and if we don’t keep up with the infrastructure all we will end up with is bottlenecks. Forward-looking infrastructure is what we need.

The world is going digital, that is e-commerce is here to stay. The amount of transaction in e-commerce now that is ongoing in the United States is over 500 million dollars,m. So, how can we tap into that digital economy and that is the reason I am excited about negotiating e-commerce agreement at WTO because I feel our countries, cities can benefit.

We have small and medium enterprises and there are many women running this, and I would like to see them on the digital platform. I would like to say we are lucky because our young people have started doing this. All we need is to encourage them and give them basic infrastructure. We don’t have venture capital that can encourage some of these businesses so that we can grow. these are some of the things we have to watch out for.

You are an icon in this country, most importantly to women. What advice do you have for our women and youths?

I am very proud of Nigerian and African women because the way they multitask and manage their career and business along with their families is amazing. You need to give them and the youths bigger platform. There are things women can do but things cannot happen without men. Our men have to decide to empower women. They have to give them a chance and open up leadership position for women. We can not be empowered unless the men give us the chance.

Comments
Loading...