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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and minister-designate, Dr. Ali Pate, have said President Bola Tinubu is aware aware of suffering of Nigerians.
The former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy told State House Correspondents after a visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said Tinubu told them that he was well aware of suffering of Nigerians.
She said their conversation with the president centred around formulating approaches to stimulate job creation, foster women’s empowerment, and bolster digital trade within Nigeria’s economy.
“We saw the President and focused on how do we support Nigerians at this time of need.
“We all know that things are very difficult for Nigerians outside, everyone is struggling. I’m here myself on a quiet visit. So this was not really an official WTO mission but we’re able to engage with Mr. President, talk about what are the kinds of programmes that that could be put in place to make sure that the suffering of Nigerians are being alleviated.
“And we had a really good conversation on trying to look at the community and grassroots programmes that can be put in place to create jobs for young people, trying to support women and children, who are bearing the brunt of some of the suffering in the country.
“We talked about how for the longer term, we need to do that investment opportunities that Nigeria can cease, including in the pharmaceutical industry.
“We also talked about what type of support the World Trade Organization can bring. We’re already working in Nigeria with women in particular, who own small and medium enterprises to try to help them upgrade the quality of their products. Whether it’s in the agricultural area, in textiles and in other areas so that they can sell more internationally.
“We’re trying to help them with digital trade, the wave of the future digital trade, so how do we train and empower Nigerian women and owners of small and medium enterprises support so they can trade more and create more jobs?
“So that’s what’s needed now, helping Nigerians to alleviate the difficult conditions that they are in.
“So that is what we discussed with Mr. President and as the Director General of the World Trade Organization, we are going to try to do the most we can to support Nigerians and this particular time.
“We look forward to trying to support the people of Nigeria.”
Pate, former Chief Executive Officer of GAVI, the global vaccine alliance, corroborated the remarks of the WTO Director General, adding Tinubu is actively working to ameliorate the suffering of citizens.
He assured that the difficulty is transitory, noting that the president is committed to all intervention measures.
Pate spoke on plans to promote grassroots programmes to support women and youth as well as prioritizing health particularly health insurance, primary health care and hospital care.
“I think I’ll just reaffirm, that Mr. President is fully aware of the difficulties that people are facing, and is committed and I think doing all that he can and with his team to ensure that those sufferings are alleviated.”
