The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said Nigeria must deliberately target global investors and supply chain relocations to drive job creation, deepen manufacturing, and reduce import dependence.
She made the remarks on Wednesday in a short clip posted by GLAZIA on its X handle from a discussion titled “From Scale to Capital: Financing Nigeria’s Role as Africa’s Digital Trade and Infrastructure Anchor,” held at Nigeria House during the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos.
The PUNCH reports that rising geopolitical tensions, particularly between the United States and China, have accelerated supply chain diversification. 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.
Okonjo-Iweala maintained that these disruptions present an opportunity for Nigeria to capture a share of global supply chains but stressed that this would require aggressive marketing of the country to prospective investors.
