Nigeria Must Target Global Investors, Supply Chains to Drive Jobs — Okonjo-Iweala
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr 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.
According to reports, 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.
She said, “As you said, some good reforms are being pursued right now. I think they need to yield to job creation. That was what I said to His Excellency—that we need to move from stabilisation to job creation, because that is where we are lacking. It is not going to be overnight, but they are moving in the right direction. What I think they need to do is map where the opportunities are.
“What I would like to see is a continued effort to attract investment into the country, because there is an opportunity now to attract these supply chains. If there is one thing I would say, it is that everything we can do to showcase Nigeria as a country worthy of investment is what we should be doing.
“And we should deliberately have strategies to go after those investments and investors—to go to China, the US, whatever it takes—to come and invest in our country. As companies seek to diversify supply chains, a lot of that movement is still within Asia. Diversification is moving from China but still within Asia, and India is another destination. We should attract a sizeable chunk of that. I’m not saying all.
“Let’s build solar panels in Nigeria. We are importing, but we can also manufacture. We have the renewable capacity. In fashion, let them come to invest. Every time I buy a piece of wax (textile), I check to see where it’s made. Let’s attract investment to make it at home rather than elsewhere. Many of the shiny new textiles we are wearing now are not made in Nigeria; a lot of them are imported.”
She also highlighted opportunities in the pharmaceutical sector, saying, “Pharmaceuticals—there is a chance there as well. These are some of the supply chains I would be attracting.”
Also present on the panel was the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Dr Oludapo Olusi.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, in an earlier interview with Bloomberg on Day 2 of #WEF26, said that at a time of global fragmentation, Nigeria is focused on discipline, reform credibility, and sustained dialogue.
He said, “The aim in the short term is to get the tax-to-GDP ratio up to 18 per cent and channel resources into social services and infrastructure.”
Edun emphasised that Nigeria remains committed to fiscal discipline, attracting investment, and leveraging its resources to ensure sustainable growth in a fragmented global economy.