Meet Dr Jumoke Oduwole The Newly Appointed Minister Of Trade And Investment

Jumoke Oduwole was born in Lagos State, Nigeria, where she completed 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 a LL.M. degree with a slant in commercial law from the Cambridge University, England in 2000 where she was as 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.

Jumoke Oduwole was Special Adviser to the President Buhari on Ease of Doing Business 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 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).

Oduwole was the executive secretary to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment 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.

Oduwole was on leave of absence from the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Nigeria, where she is a Senior Lecturer during her appointment. She joined the faculty in 2004 and was a two-term elected member of the University of Lagos Senate.

She taught various subjects, including International Trade Law, International Economic Law, Law of Banking and Negotiable Instruments, Contract, and Commercial Transactions. Her current research interests include International Economic Law, Development, and Human Rights in Africa, and she is widely published.[citation needed]

In 2013, Oduwole was appointed as the 2013-2015 Prince Claus Chair holder, a Visiting Professorship of development and equity in honour 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 Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; she also convened a second Roundtable in the Hague in the same year.

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 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. She was a 2013 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow of the African Leadership Institute. In 2019, she was one of three women recognized by ALN Women at the 10th Anniversary Dinner of 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.