The Presidency on Friday confirmed the nomination of the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, by President Muhammadu Buhari for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organization, WTO.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi, had disclosed this in his Twitter handle on Friday morning.

Ogunlesi said that the current Director-General of the intergovernmental organization, Roberto Azevedo, will be stepping down from his position on August 2020, a year ahead of the end of his tenure.

According to him, “President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated Okonji-Iweala as Nigeria’s candidate for the position of the Director-General of World Trade Organization. DG Azevedo is stepping down in August 2020, a year earlier, so the election of the new DG, originally scheduled for 2021, may take place much earlier”.

Azevedo, has been the head of the WTO since 2013.

He is stepping down at this critical period of global economic crisis and the trade war between the United States of America and China.

The WTO head said this is the best way to avoid any chaos at the alliance, which has witnessed attacks from US President, Donald Trump.

This means that the election that was earlier scheduled for 2021 when his tenure was supposed to expire might be coming up much earlier for a new four-year term.

A member of the Presidential media team told Vanguard, “It is true President Buhari has nominated Dr Okonjo-Iweala as Nigeria’s candidate for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organization, WTO