Jumoke Oduwole

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

Early life and education

Jumoke Oduwole, MFR, was born in Lagos State, Nigeria. She studied law at the University of Lagos, graduating in 1998. Oduwole was called to the Nigerian Bar the following year. She later pursued postgraduate studies abroad, earning a master’s degree in commercial law from the University of Cambridge in 2000 on a DFID–Cambridge Commonwealth Trust scholarship. In 2007, she completed a master’s degree in international legal studies at Stanford University, where she also held a graduate fellowship at the Center on International Conflict and Negotiation.

From 2008 to 2010, she served as a visiting scholar at the University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas, US and obtained her doctorate in international trade and development from Stanford Law School. Oduwole previously served as 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. Oduwole has held two street photography exhibitions in the Netherlands and one in Lagos. She is married and has two children.

Career Oduwole MFR is the current (2026) Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment of Nigeria. She was appointed as the Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and Investment. She had served in former President Buhari's administration from November 2015 to May 2023 as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade, and Investment, and later as Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business. She and her team implemented over 200 reforms across various government levels, according to official reports. She contributed to the conceptualization and establishment of the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN). She was a member of the Technical Working Group of the Presidential Committee for the Impact and Readiness Assessment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) (Sub-Committee on Ease of Doing Business) and is a member of Nigeria's AfCFTA Implementation National Action Committee (NAC).

Oduwole has served on several specialized reform committees, including the 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 Executive Secretary and Executive Member of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), she oversees the Secretariat’s activities aimed at improving Nigeria’s business environment. in 2023. In September 2024, she was awarded a "Hall of Fame" recognition by The Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) for her work in business climate reforms from 2015 to 2024.

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 and 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. In September 2022, 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). 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 African Leadership Institute and is one of 15 women leaders selected from across the African continent who formed the inaugural cohort of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's "Amujae Initiative" in 2020.

Oduwole founded the No Limits Nigeria Initiative (NLNI) in 2023, an organization focused on promoting young people to engage in nation-building. She has received awards such as the Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership Award (2022) and the Enterprising Women Awards (2022). In 2019, she received an Africa Leadership Network (ALN) Women 10th Anniversary Recognition for the impact of her work on business climate reforms.