WTO will help if Nigeria adds value to her products – Okonjo Iweala.
Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said, Monday, that the WTO will do more to help Nigeria, but we need to add value to our products to trade more.
Iweala, while briefing newsmen after meeting with President, Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Villa, Abuja said, Nigeria should exploit all the opportunities in front of her.
She said, “We have to start moving towards more manufacturing. We have to start looking towards adding more value to the products we now have.”
This, she said will help create more jobs and trade more.
“You can trade more if you produce more and add more value. Let’s not export our jobs to the outside,” she added.
She said she gave Buhari the example of shea butter and sesame seed adding that Nigeria is one of the largest producers in the world.
“You know these are used for cosmetics. So, the WTO, together with the international trade centre, came here to work with women and men in a cooperative to try to improve the quality of their products.
“We were producing this but we could not access the US or European market because the quality of our products was not good enough.
“But by working with the WTO, they will be able to improve the quality of the shea butter that was being produced, for example, get NAFDAC approval and registration which also open the door for them to be able to export some of these products and sell domestically to cosmetics and manufacturers,” she said.
Dr Iweala thanked Mr President for nominating her and also for calling the world leaders to ensure she gets the job.
She also thanked the Nigerian youth for supporting and backing her up on social media.
