Nigeria’s Chief Trade Negotiator and Director General of the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation, is dead.

It has been reported that Chiedu Osakwe, Nigeria’s Chief Trade Negotiator and Director General of the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation, has passed on.

Details of his death remained sketchy as at press time Monday morning.

But a tweet by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) confirmed the death on Sunday.
“Amb Chiedu Osakwe, Nigeria’s Chief Trade Negotiator & Director General of Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation @TradeOfficeNG has passed on,” the tweet read. “May his soul rest in peace. Africa has lost an illustrious son, a role model per excellent.”

A source in the Ministry of Trade and Investment also confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview Monday morning. The source, too, however, explained that details of the death still remain sketchy.

Mr Osakwe was Nigeria’s Chief Trade Negotiator and Director General of the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations. He chaired the Negotiating Forum of the African Union (AU) from June 2017 to March 2018, during which time the negotiations were concluded on the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Previously, he was on the staff of the World Trade Organization Secretariat (1998–2017) during which he was a director of a number of WTO divisions. Prior to the WTO Secretariat, he was a Nigerian Foreign Service Officer (1979 to 1998).