In an optimistic outlook, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been declared the candidate with the largest, and broadest support among members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and most likely to attract consensus.

This was revealed by the former coordinating minister of the Economy herself, through her verified Twitter page.

READ: Trans-Nationwide Express Plc suffers N79 million loss in Q3 2020

Happy for the success & continued progress of our @wto DG bid. Very humbled to be declared the candidate with the largest, broadest support among members & most likely to attract consensus. We move on to the next step on Nov 9, despite hiccups. We're keeping the positivity going!

— Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (@NOIweala) October 29, 2020

Backstory: Recall that Nairametrics had earlier reported that Okonjo Iweala is close to being appointed as the new Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

This is after a rigorous selection process that has seen the former minister of Finance scale through a lot of hurdles, making it to the top two.

READ: Why Okonjo-Iweala should win the WTO DG role – Prof. Moghalu

What you should know: According to a press release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the third and final round of the selection process of the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was concluded on Tuesday, 27 October 2020 and the result was announced on Wednesday, 28th October 2020.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala secured the support of the majority of the member-countries but is yet to be declared and returned the winner.

This is because apart from winning the election, all 164 member-states of WTO were expected to adopt the winner by consensus, in accordance with the rule of procedure of the WTO.

It is important to highlight that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has secured cross-regional backing with only the United States opposing the consensus.

(READ MORE: WTO accepts nomination of Okonjo-Iweala as DG despite opposition from Egypt)

A meeting of the General Council of the WTO has been scheduled for 9th November, 2020 for the final decision on the election process.

What they are saying: Expressing her optimism in winning the race, Dr. Okono-Iweala said: “Happy for the success & continued progress of our @wto DG bid. Very humbled to be declared the candidate with the largest, broadest support among members & most likely to attract consensus. We move on to the next step on Nov 9, despite hiccups. We’re keeping the positivity going.”

Explore some Advanced Financial Calculators on Nairametrics

Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonji-Iweala, is close to being appointed as the new Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

READ: Okonjo-Iweala gets Organised private sector’s endorsement for WTO job

According to Reuters, a group of ambassadors also known as “troika” has proposed Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to lead the WTO giving her a clear path to becoming the first woman to head the WTO since it started 25 years ago. The three ambassadors are thought to wield significant powers in determining what is a very “intricate and opaque” process.

READ: Buhari assures Okonjo-Iweala that the country will push until she emerges WTO DG

Most Nigerian Media houses have already announced NOI as the winner of the process even though this is yet to be made official by the WTO.

The winner for the role of DG of WTO is expected to be announced formally by the WTO later today.

However, there appears to be a new twist, in the expected announcement of her emergence as the new Director-General of the WTO.

The United States through its representative at the WTO has insisted that the South Korean candidate is still in contention and that Washington will not recognize Okonjo-Iweala as the consensus candidate for appointment as Director-General.

As a result, the General Counsel of WTO, postponed the announcement of a new Director-General until November 9, after the US presidential election, after further consultations would have been made.

The announcement of Okonjo-Iweala, who is reported to have gotten the support of a vast majority of members states, including the EU, Japan and China, as the new boss of the World Trade Organization, would have been a huge boost for Africa

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has presented the total sum of N147.9 billion as its proposed budget for 2021 fiscal year before the Kano State House of Assembly today.

Presenting the budget tagged “Budget for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development,”Governor Ganduje said the budget is in furtherance of his administration’s vision for diversification of the state sources of revenue which will engineer development in the future.

Backstory: Recall that Nairametrics had earlier reported the drive and optimism by Kano State government to boost its Internally Generated Revenue. This might probably explain why IGR increased by almost 10% between 2020 allocations and proposed estimates for 2021.

What you should know: The breakdown of the budget verified by Nairametrics showed the following key highlights:

• The total budget increased by approximately 7.0% from N138.279 billion in 2020 to N147.935 billion in 2021.
• Capital expenditure for the periods under view increased by 10.93% from N60.485 billion to N67.095 billion.
• Recurrent expenditure also increased from N77.79 billion to N80.839 billion, indicating a 3.92%. increase for the periods under view.
• Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) increased by approximately 10% from N24 billion to N26.395 billion during the period under view.
• A breakdown of the budget showed that the Education sector has over N37 Billion representing 25% of the total budget while the health care delivery service has over N25 Billion representing 17% of the total budget.