Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organisation, said Nigeria needs to move beyond macroeconomic stabilisation and focus squarely on job creation by deliberately courting global investment and supply chains.
Speaking Wednesday at a fireside chat at Nigeria House on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum(WEF) in Davos, Okonjo-Iweala said recent reforms underway in Africa’s most populous economy are positive but must translate into employment and productive investment.
“Some good reforms are being pursued right now, but they need to yield to job creation,” she said. “I’ve said to the president that we have to move from stabilisation to creating jobs because that’s where we are.”
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Nigeria embarked on sweeping economic reforms over the past two years, including removing petrol and foreign exchange subsidies, to restore investor confidence after years of distortions. Okonjo-Iweala cautioned that such reforms take time to deliver results, but said the government is broadly on the right path and must now sharpen its focus.
“The reforms are not going to be implemented overnight,” she said. “But the direction is right. What is needed now is to map where the opportunities are.”
A key opportunity, she said, lies in the global reordering of supply chains as companies seek to diversify production away from over-concentration in China. While much of that shift is flowing to Asia, including India, Nigeria should position itself to capture a meaningful share.
“There’s an opportunity now to attract all these supply chains,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “If there’s one thing I’d like to see, it’s everything we can do to show Nigeria as a country worthy of investing in.”
She urged authorities to adopt an intentional, targeted strategy to attract investors, including direct engagement with governments and multilateral institutions.
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“We should deliberately have a strategy to go after those investments — to go after investors, to go to China, the United Nations, whatever it takes — and let them come and invest in our country,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala pointed to renewable energy, textiles and pharmaceuticals as sectors where Nigeria has clear comparative advantages but continues to rely heavily on imports. She cited solar panels as an example of products Nigeria imports despite having the capacity to manufacture locally.
“Let’s build solar panels in Nigeria,” she said. “We have the renewable capacity. The fashion sector is another opportunity, let them come and invest.”
She also highlighted the irony of Nigeria’s vibrant fashion market being dominated by imported textiles, even as the country consumes large volumes of wax prints and other fabrics.
“Every time I buy a piece of wax, I sometimes stop to see where it is made,” she said. “Many of the shiny new textiles we’re wearing are not made in Nigeria. Let’s make sure that manufacturing happens at home.”
Pharmaceuticals, she added, offer another opening as global firms reassess production hubs and look for new markets with scale and demand.
“There are specific supply chains where Nigeria has strong potential,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “This is really my passion, turning reforms into jobs by attracting investment where it matters most.”