Jumoke Oduwole JSD

Nigeria

Occupational Information

Job Title: Academic, Advisor, Speaker, Advocate

Professional History

Dr. Jumoke Oduwole is an academic, former government advisor, and advocate. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Prior to this, she served as Special Adviser to the President of Nigeria on Ease of Doing Business from August 2019 to May 2023. Before her appointment to this role, Jumoke was Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade & Investment in the Office of the Vice President. Her team was responsible for Nigeria moving up an unprecedented 39 places in the World Bank’s flagship Doing Business Report over the last three years, among other notable achievements.

She is currently 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.

Jumoke is a respected global thought leader in her field. She was the only African nominated onto the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment in 2016 and is a highly sought-after speaker. Prior to her career in academia, Jumoke led a corporate banking unit of the telecommunications sector team in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc’s Corporate Banking Group. She was an investment banker with FCMB Capital Markets Ltd from 2000 to 2003.

Jumoke graduated from University of Lagos with a bachelor’s degree in law in 1998 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1999. She obtained an LL.M. degree in commercial law from Cambridge University in 2000, where she was a DFID-Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar. In 2007, Jumoke received a master’s degree in International Legal Studies from Stanford University and obtained her doctorate degree in International Trade and Development from Stanford Law School.

Jumoke was on the boards of Ecobank Nigeria Plc and Positive Action for Treatment Access (PATA), a leading HIV/AIDS advocacy NGO; as well as the Advisory Board of the “Know Your Constitution” Initiative, a civil liberties movement pioneered by a United Nations Young Ambassador for Peace. She is currently a Trustee of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS), an Africa-wide think tank that provides an inclusive platform for African youth, and is a Tutu Fellow of the African Leadership Institute.

Qualifications

LL.B. from University of Lagos; LL.M. from Cambridge University
JSM, JSD from Stanford University
Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (BL).

2012-2013 Inaugural Private Investors for Africa (West Africa) Fellow

Programme

2013 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow

 Additional Tags: Law,  International Law, International Economic Law, Human Rights, and Development