The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has advised the Nigerian government to deliberately target global investors and supply chain relocations to reduce import dependence, deepen manufacturing, and drive job creation.
She made the remarks on Wednesday at Nigeria House during the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos.
During a panel discussion titled “From Scale to Capital: Financing Nigeria’s Role as Africa’s Digital Trade and Infrastructure Anchor,” the WTO Chief stressed that rising geopolitical tensions, particularly between the United States and China, have accelerated supply chain diversification.
Also present on the panel was the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Dr Oludapo Olusi.
“Firms are increasingly adopting China+1 sourcing strategies to reduce single-country risk, although China remains deeply embedded in many global value chains.
“In addition, tariffs and trade restrictions have incentivised companies to reconsider reliance on dominant suppliers, prompting the relocation or diversification of production hubs”, she said.
According to her, these disruptions present an opportunity for Nigeria to capture a share of global supply chains.
She, however, noted that this would require aggressive marketing of the country to prospective investors.
She said, “As you said, some good reforms are being pursued right now. I think they need to yield to job creation. That was what I said to His Excellency—that we need to move from stabilisation to job creation, because that is where we are lacking. It is not going to be overnight, but they are moving in the right direction. What I think they need to do is map where the opportunities are.
Credit: channelstv.com
