Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has advised Nigeria’s Central Bank (CBN) to embrace digital economy and the opportunities it provides, as according to her, digital economy has come to stay.
The WTO boss, who spoke when she visited the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele at the apex bank’s headquarters in Abuja today, March 16, said that digital economy provides particularly the young people the opportunity to move forward.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is Nigeria’s former minister of finance, said that Nigeria has enough resources and opportunities to exit the recession, while encouraging the apex bank to use the opportunities presented by the digital economy as remedy, as opposed to banning.
“I think we have what it takes in the country, particularly our young people to do the necessary which is to move forward as to how we are going to create jobs and move this economy in the direction that would support our youths in the future,” she said.
“There are opportunities that can be used in improving trade so that our economy can climb out of this pandemic recession that we are in faster than would have been the case.
“WTO has what we call trade remedies. Without banning things we can be able to protect our industries against dumping and cheap imports if we use those remedies. We can use those remedies as a tool to help our industries.
“Digital Economy has come to stay and people are doing well there. We need to support our young people to make use of the digital economy.”
Okonjo-Iweala emphasized that conversations must start in that direction and also the creative industry should not be neglected as it creates more jobs for the youths.
The CBN Governor responded by saying that the local industry should be given the room to grow as it would create more job opportunities, given the rate of high unemployment
He said that Nigeria is open to business in any part of the world.
