NEW DELHI, India – Nigeria has reaffirmed its commitment to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the multilateral trading system, declaring that no sovereign nation can achieve sustainable economic prosperity in isolation from the global community, the State House announced in an official communique on Saturday, September 12, 2026.
The diplomatic reaffirmation was delivered by Vice President Kashim Shettima, GCON, during a high-level bilateral meeting with the Director-General of the WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, conducted on the sidelines of the ongoing 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, India.
Okay News reports that Senator Shettima, who is representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, at the summit, emphasized that Nigeria remains firmly aligned with international trade institutions that prioritize multilateral cooperation, fair market access, and collective problem-solving over protectionist isolation.
“I believe the world is greater than one nation. We will continue to support the WTO in championing the cause of multilateralism. We are essentially one human family and interconnected. You cannot divorce yourself from the global community,” Shettima stated during discussions with the WTO leadership.
The Vice President made an impassioned case for cross-border migration as an indispensable catalyst for innovation, cultural exchange, and global macroeconomic expansion, observing that historical civilisations and modern metropolitan hubs were fundamentally constructed through the contributions of immigrant communities.
“Nations are built by immigrants. Even cities are built by people who came from outside, not just by the locals. That goes to show that we have so much to gain from global migration,” Shettima explained, noting that restrictive barriers to human talent undermine global productivity.
Illustrating his point with the achievements of the Nigerian diaspora, the Vice President highlighted recent empirical data from the Pew Research Center analyzing United States Census Bureau records, which established that 67 percent of Nigerian-born Black immigrants aged 25 and above residing in the United States possess at least a bachelor’s degree, representing the highest educational attainment proportion among all major Black immigrant groups evaluated.
Shettima commended Dr. Okonjo-Iweala—the first woman and first African to lead the global trade regulator, who commenced her second four-year tenure as Director-General in September 2025—for her stewardship of the Geneva-based organization amid rising geopolitical fragmentation.
“You are doing a very wonderful job at the WTO, but you still have a lot to contribute to humanity,” the Vice President told Okonjo-Iweala, urging her to sustain efforts aimed at reforming dispute settlement mechanisms and integrating developing economies into global supply chains.
According to an official statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications in the Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, Shettima is scheduled to address the plenary of BRICS heads of state on Sunday under the summit theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
During the presidential address, the Vice President will pitch Nigeria’s foreign direct investment potential across energy, infrastructure, and the digital economy, detailing how domestic economic reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda are laying structural foundations for private-sector-led industrialization.
