As part of his Renewed Hope agenda, President Tinubu has again hit the ground running with the appointment of 18 Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants to help steer the economy in the right direction of recovery and growth.
One of the names listed by the president is Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, a policy entrepreneur and law academic researcher per excellence.
Her appointment as Special Adviser to the President of Nigeria on Ease of Doing Business in the Office of the Vice President is set up to help the administration navigate the fiscal and monetary policies of the country and move the economy on a positive trend.
Dr. Oduwole obtained an L.L.B. second-class upper degree in law from the University of Lagos in 1998. Afterward, she proceeded to obtain an LL.M degree 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 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.
In addition, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas USA from 2008 to 2010 and obtained her doctorate 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.
Career
Before her appointment as Special Adviser to the President of Nigeria on Ease of Doing Business in the Office of the Vice President, Oduwole has served in different capacities in the cooperate world, both nationally and globally.
Oduwole was Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade & Investment (OVP) from November 2015 to May 2019 during which she worked to form the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN).
She also served 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 currently represented on Nigeria’s AfCFTA Implementation National Action Committee (NAC).
Furthermore, the legal luminary is the executive secretary to the Presidential Enabling Business Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, with the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment as Vice Chair, and coordinates the activities of its secretariat where policies and business reformations that would make Nigeria a progressively easier place to do business are developed and implemented.
In 2013, Oduwole was appointed as the 2013-2015 Prince Claus Chair holder, a Visiting Professorship of Development and Equity in honor of the late Prince Claus of The Netherlands by the Curatorium then chaired by H.M. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.
In April 2015 she convened an inaugural Prince Claus Chair Roundtable in Lagos, Nigeria on the sidelines of the 3rd Biennial African International Economic Law Network hosted by the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; she also convened a second Roundtable in the Hague in the same year.
Awards and Notable Accomplishments
Oduwole was a member of the Executive Council of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) from 2016 to 2018. She was the only African nominated to the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Trade & Investment in 2016 and served on the executive committee of the African International Economic Law Network (AfIELN) for two terms.
Oduwole was Vice President on the executive board of the Africa Association of International Law (AAIL), representing West Africa. She is a member of both the Nigerian and American Societies of International Law (NSIL and ASIL).
She serves as a trustee of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies, an Africa-wide think tank on governance, economic development, and the evolution of African institutions. She was previously on the Boards of Ecobank Nigeria Plc and Positive Action for Treatment Access (PATA), an HIV/AIDS advocacy NGO in Nigeria.
In 2019, she was one of three women recognized by ALN Women at the 10th Anniversary Dinner of the African Leadership Network (ALN) at its Annual Gathering for their impact on Africans through career accomplishments.
In January 2020, Oduwole was selected as one of 15 women leaders across the African continent with high leadership potential to form the inaugural cohort of The Amujae Initiative, the flagship undertaking of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development.
Personal Interest
An avid street photographer, she has held two exhibitions in the Netherlands and one in Lagos, Nigeria.
Dr. Jumoke is an excellent and capable professional. A DEPARTURE from the myriad “compensation” and “loyalty” appointments of this administration. Kudos!
This is her second coming..There should be more collaborations with smedan and the state government. The policies and programmes to promote Ease of doing business require coordination and collaborative efforts. The office of the Vice President should desist from.taking the shine off smedan. We need to see tangible results of impact on SMEs.. The recent past investment commitments from.the.trip.of the president to India must be coordinated for success asap to create employment.