# Jumoke Oduwole

Dr Olajumoke Omoniyi Oduwole (born 23 September 1973) is a Nigerian jurist and the incumbent Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.
She was the Prince Claus Chair holder from 2013 to 2015.

## Early life and education

Jumoke Oduwole was born in Lagos State, Nigeria, where she completed both her primary and secondary education. She graduated from the University of Lagos with a second-class upper, LL.B. degree in law in 1998 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1999. She obtained an LL.M. degree with a focus in commercial law from Cambridge University, in England, in 2000 where she was a DFID-Cambridge Commonwealth Trust scholar. In 2007, Jumoke Oduwole received a master's degree in international legal studies from Stanford University, in the US, and was a graduate fellow at the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN) from 2007 to 2008.
She was a visiting scholar at the University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas, US, from 2008 to 2010 and obtained her doctorate degree in international trade and development (WTO negotiation strategy) from Stanford Law School. Oduwole is a past co-president of the Stanford Alumni Club of Nigeria and was a member of the executive committee of the Oxford and Cambridge (Oxbridge) Club of Nigeria. In 2023, she was appointed as a senior fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Massachusetts, US. In addition to professional achievements, Oduwole has held two street photography exhibitions in the Netherlands and one in Lagos. She is married with two children.

## Career

Oduwole is the Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR on Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and Investment. Prior to this role, she had served in the former President Buhari Administration from November 2015 to May 2023. She held the position of Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, and subsequently, Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business in the Office of the Vice President. During her tenure, she and her team are credited with implementing over 200 reforms across various government levels, according to official reports. She also contributed to the conceptualization and formation of the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN) in the Office of the Vice President. Until her appointment to this role in August 2019, Oduwole was Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade & Investment (OVP) from November 2015 to May 2019 in which she worked to form the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN). She was on the Technical Working Group of the Presidential Committee for the Impact and Readiness Assessment of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) (Sub-Committee on Ease of Doing Business) and is a member of Nigeria's AfCFTA Implementation National Action Committee (NAC).
Oduwole has been on several specialized reform committees including AfCFTA Implementation Committee and the Tax Policy Reform Committee. She chaired the Technical Working Team on Legislative Imperatives for the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021–2025. As the pioneer Executive Secretary and Executive Member to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), she continues to oversee the Secretariat's activities aimed at improving Nigeria's business environment.
Her contributions to reform efforts were recognized with the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) honor in 2023. In September 2024, The Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) honored her with a "Hall of Fame" Award for her work in business climate reforms over the past decade (2015–2024). During her tenure, Nigeria improved by 39 places in the World Bank's Doing Business Report between 2017 and 2019.
Oduwole was named one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) Class of 2024 Global Top 100 Export and International Trade Edition in May 2024. She was appointed as a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. In August 2022, she was invited to serve as a Governance Advisor to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Gov/Lab Governance Innovation Initiative. She was selected as a member of the 6th cohort of the Africa Leadership Institute, West Africa (ALIWA), part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) in September 2022.
Since 2016, Oduwole has been on loan to the Federal Government of Nigeria from the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Nigeria, where she taught various subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels ranging from International Economic Law, International Trade Law, Law of the Sea, Diplomatic and Consular Law, Law of Banking and Negotiable Instruments, Law of Contract, Law of Taxation, Business Law and Commercial Transactions since 2004. Her research has focused on International Economic Law, Economic Development in Africa, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Oduwole was a two-term elected member of the University of Lagos Senate. Prior to her career in academia, Oduwole led a corporate banking unit in the telecommunications sector team at Guaranty Trust Bank Plc's Corporate Banking Group. She was an investment banker with FCMB Capital Markets, a division of FCMB Plc from 2000 to 2003, and worked on some Capital Raising, Mergers and Acquisition and Privatisation transactions for local and multinational clients.
Oduwole was appointed as of 2013–2015 Prince Claus Chair holder, a Visiting Professorship in Development and Equity in honor of the late Prince Claus of The Netherlands conferred by the Curatorium (then) chaired by H.M. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands. She has spoken at the Harvard Africa Business and Public Policy Conferences in March 2022 and 2023 respectively, the World Bank Group Spring Meetings 2023, the MIT Africa Innovate Conference in April 2022, and as a member of Nigeria's 2022 delegation to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). She has spoken at the World Economic Forum on Africa, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Geneva, the European Union Commission, Brussels, and the International Criminal Court, the Hague, among others. She contributed to an article in The Futures Report – "Making the AfCFTA work for Women and Youth" jointly published by the African Union's AfCFTA Secretariat and the UNDP in 2020.
Oduwole is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS), an Africa-wide think tank on governance, economic development and the evolution of African institutions, and was previously on the Board of Ecobank Nigeria Plc, and Positive Action for Treatment Access (PATA), an HIV support organization. She is a 2013 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow of the prestigious African Leadership Institute, and is one of 15 women leaders selected from across the African continent who formed the inaugural cohort of the flagship undertaking of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's "Amujae Initiative" in 2020.
Oduwole founded the No Limits Nigeria Initiative (NLNI) in 2023 to inspire, inform and impact young Nigerians toward nation-building. She has received awards such as the Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership Award (2022) and the Enterprising Women Awards (2022). "Power Woman". In 2019, she received an Africa Leadership Network (ALN) Women 10th Anniversary Recognition for the impact of her work on business climate reforms.
Oduwole graduated from the University of Lagos with a second-class upper LL.B. degree in law in 1998 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1999. She obtained an LL.M. degree (second-class upper) with a slant in Commercial law from Cambridge University, England, in 2000, where she was a DFID Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar. In 2007, Oduwole received a second master's degree in International Legal Studies from Stanford University, USA, and was a Graduate Fellow at the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN) from 2007 to 2008. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas USA from 2008 to 2010 and obtained her doctorate degree in International Trade and Development in 2011 from Stanford Law School.

## Publications

* Jumoke Oduwole, Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained? A Case Study of Africa's Participation in WTO Dispute Settlement, Int. J. Private Law, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2009. pp. 358–370 (Switzerland).
* Jumoke Oduwole, WTO Doha Round Agriculture Negotiations: The ‘Development Component’ and Africa, Sauti: Stanford Journal of African Studies, Volume VI ~ 2009/10 pp. 16–25 (USA).
* Jumoke Oduwole, An Appraisal Of Developing Country Coalition Strategy In The WTO Doha Round Agriculture Negotiations, Currents: International Trade Law Journal, South Texas College of Law, (Summer 2012) pp. 45–52. (USA).
* Jumoke Oduwole, Developing Countries and Consensus-Based Decision-Making In The WTO: The Doha Experience, Journal of International Law and Diplomacy, Vol. 1:1, 2013 pp. 75–101 (Nigeria).
* Jumoke Oduwole, WTO Special and Differential Treatment: Africa's Golden Fleece or Trojan Horse? SADC Law Journal, 2013 vol. 3, Issue 1 pp. 59–79 fall 2013 (South Africa).
* Jumoke Oduwole, International Trade Dispute Remedies: How Equitable for Africa? Vol. 32 Journal of Private and Property Law pp. 92–105 (2014) (Nigeria).
* Jumoke Oduwole, A Critical Analysis of the Non-Participation of African Countries in the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism Vol 20 African Yearbook of International Law/Annuaire Africain de droit international (2013-2014) pp. 157–89 [Special volume in honour of 80th birthday of Professor Georges Abi-Saab] (The Netherlands).
* Jumoke Oduwole, African Participation at the World Trade Organization - Legal and Institutional Aspects, 1995-2010 (Author: Joan Apecu Laker; Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff; Year of Publication: 2014; ISBN 978-90-04-25670-5) (The Netherlands).
* Jumoke Oduwole, An Evaluation of Africa's Contribution to the Implementation of the Right to Development in International Law, in Shielding Humanity: Essays in Honour of Judge Abdul Koroma, International Court of Justice from 1994 to 2012, Charles Jalloh and Olufemi Elias (eds) pp 565–90 (Brill 2015) (The Netherlands) (Book chapter).
* Jumoke Oduwole, International Law and the Right to Development: A Pragmatic Approach for Africa, Inaugural Lecture Monograph, Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, ISBN 978-94-91478-22-2 2014 pp. 1–44 (The Netherlands).
* Jumoke Oduwole, The ECOWAS Common External Tariff and Nigeria in Law and Practice of Indirect Taxes In Nigeria, Abiola Sanni (ed.), (Chartered Institute of Taxation Nigeria, 2014) pp. 233–364. (Book chapter).
* Jumoke Oduwole, Human Rights, International Norms and Transnational Corporations: The story so far Vol. 1 Journal of Public Law [2013] pp. 65–81 (Nigeria).

## Awards and honours

In 2023, Oduwole was given the national award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), the second highest national award in Niger, by President Muhammadu Buhari.