Former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has made the final shortlist of candidates for the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) even after the international body reduced the number of candidates to five.

WTO in a Tweet on its official handle @wto on Friday announced that the five “candidates will be moving on for members’ further consideration in the next round of consultations, which resume on 24 September.”

 

WTO also said Mexico’s Jesus Seade, Egypt’s Hamid Mamdouh and Moldova’s Tudor Ulianovschi didn’t secure enough support in a first of three rounds of voting.

The second phase of consultations would begin on September 24 and run until October 6 after which the WTO would announce two final candidates.

President Muhammadu Buhari had nominated Okonjo-Iweala for the WTO DG role with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) later backing her nomination.