ABU trained scholar-led research contributes to successful WTO pact on curbing harmful fisheries subsidies
The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has expressed excitement for the ground-breaking research by an ABU trained scholar that directly contributed to a landmark sustainability-focused WTO agreement on curbing harmful fisheries subsidies.
The research was conducted by Dr Rashid Sumaila, a professor of ocean economics at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He received his BSc in Quantity Surveying from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The ABU trained scholar conducted the research to quantify harmful fisheries subsidies and understand how they affect marine fish stocks and people’s livelihoods.
Okonjo-Iweala explained that throughout the negotiations on WTO’s new agreement on curbing harmful fisheries subsidies both governments and civil society groups drew on the work of Prof Rashid Sumaila.
Speaking as a guest lecturer at the Pre-Convocation Lecture of Ahmadu Bello University held in Zaria on Friday, 30th January, 2026, she said harmful fisheries subsidies encouraged illegal and unreported fishing of the oceans.
Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, acknowledged the vital role ABU was playing in the social, cultural, and economic life of Nigeria and beyond.
She said since its founding in 1962 first as the University of Northern Nigeria, the institution had grown rapidly with a wide ranging programme of courses from engineering, medicine, and the sciences to languages, the arts, Islamic Studies and public administration.
Okonjo-Iweala also acknowledged that the research conducted in ABU had advanced the frontier of knowledge and offered practical solutions to problems from animal feed shortages during the dry season to generating wind power in rural areas.
“And while the university’s impact has been particularly strong here in the North, it has drawn students from across the entire country, in keeping with Sir Ahmadu Bello’s vision”, she said.
On the history of university education in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria’s erstwhile colonial masters thought higher education was wasted on Africans.
She also stated that at independence in 1960, Nigeria had only one degree-granting institution, in Ibadan, stressing that one of the first tasks of building the nation was to build universities.
The WTO Director-General thanked the university most sincerely for what she described as “the immense honor” of inviting her to speak at the Pre-Convocation Lecture.
Okonjo-Iweala also thanked former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was to be the Chairman of the Occasion but was aby represented by former Head of Service of the Federation, Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, ABU Governing Council.
She further said Obasanjo, alongside past and present Heads of State, including President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, was grappling with Africa’s approach called the ‘Accra Reset’ which he just presented in Davos.
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Public Affairs Directorate,
Office of the Vice-Chancellor,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (NEWS/NAM/SGB/PIC/TKU)
Wednesday, 4th February, 2026
