Kenya’s Amina Mohamed has emerged as a last-minute candidate to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), as nominations closed on Wednesday with two African women among the leading contenders.

Britain’s Liam Fox and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri were also late entrants into the contest, which can now formally kick off after the deadline for countries to put forward candidates passed on Wednesday evening. 

They are part of a field of eight candidates, in which Ms Mohamed, a former Kenyan trade minister who has chaired the WTO’s general council, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister and senior World Bank official from Nigeria, are widely seen as the two front-runners. Both have pledged to drive modernisation of the bloc’s rules, warning of threats to its relevance if it cannot change.