Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has explained the vital role the World Trade Organisation (WTO) could play in the creation of COVID-19 vaccine.
The former Minister is one of eight candidates contesting for the World Trade Organization’s Director-General position.
The other candidates are from Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Kenya, South Korea, Mexico, Egypt and Moldova.
While talking during a reception organised in her honour by the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Okonjo-Iweala appealed to the rest of the world to support her as she vies for the WTO’s top job.
She said: “When vaccines and therapeutic medicine are produced, the WTO should be able to facilitate accessibility and equitable distribution to all member nations.
“To this end, trade has to be a strong recovery out of the global recession. And that makes a multilateral trading system part of the solution.”
Okonjo-Iweala, who is the current Chairperson of the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), said her GAVI experience would help her in bridging the gap between the developed and the developing countries in the production of COVID-19 vaccines.
She said: “There is need for WTO to collaborate with finance agencies to address these issues otherwise it remains an impediment to the multilateral trading system.
“If elected as director-general, you have an ally, who is interested in addressing these challenges.”
