Following the recent cabinet reshuffle announced by President Tinubu, which includes the dismissal of five ministers and the appointment of seven new ones, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole has been named the new Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment.
Upon her confirmation by the Senate as Minister, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole will succeed Dr. Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite, who has been reassigned as the Minister of State for Finance.
Prior to this appointment, Oduwole served as the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business in the Office of the Vice President.
She currently holds the position of Special Adviser on the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and Investment.
Education
Dr. Jumoke Oduwole earned an LL.B. (Second Class Upper) in Law from the University of Lagos in 1998. She then pursued an LL.M. with a focus on Commercial Law at Cambridge University, England, in 2000, where she was awarded a DFID-Cambridge Commonwealth Trust scholarship.
In 2007, Oduwole obtained a master’s degree in International Legal Studies from Stanford University, USA, and served as a Graduate Fellow at the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN) from 2007 to 2008.
She furthered her academic career as a visiting scholar at the University of Houston Law Center, Texas, from 2008 to 2010 and earned her doctorate in International Trade and Development, with a specialization in WTO Negotiation Strategy, from Stanford Law School.
Oduwole is also a former co-president of the Stanford Alumni Club of Nigeria and previously served on 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, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole held various roles in the corporate world, both nationally and globally. She served as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade, and Investment (OVP) from November 2015 to May 2019, during which she played a key role in establishing the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN).
Oduwole also contributed to the Technical Working Group of the Presidential Committee for the Impact and Readiness Assessment of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), specifically in the Sub-Committee on Ease of Doing Business, and currently represents Nigeria on the AfCFTA Implementation National Action Committee (NAC).
As the Executive Secretary of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, with the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment as Vice Chair, Oduwole oversees the council’s secretariat.
There, she coordinates policy development and business reforms aimed at making Nigeria an increasingly conducive environment for business.
In 2013, Oduwole was appointed as the 2013-2015 Prince Claus Chair holder, a visiting professorship for Development and Equity in honor of the late Prince Claus of the Netherlands, awarded by the Curatorium then chaired by H.M. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.
In April 2015, she organized the inaugural Prince Claus Chair Roundtable in Lagos, Nigeria, during the 3rd Biennial African International Economic Law Network event, hosted by the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos. Later that year, she convened a second roundtable in The Hague.
In January 2020, Oduwole was recognized as one of 15 exceptional women leaders from across Africa selected to join the inaugural cohort of The Amujae Initiative, the flagship program of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development.
