Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga (born 1955) is a Nigerian politician who served as the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment of Nigeria from 2011 to 2015. He was first nominated by President Olusegun Obasanjo and appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan as the Minister of Finance from 6 April 2010 to June 2011.
Achievements
Mr. Aganga has been widely acclaimed as being responsible for many transformational milestones in Nigeria, including – establishing the country's Sovereign Wealth Fund; issuing the Nation's first ever Euro Bond; chairing the World Bank and IMF in 2010, chairing the 8th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (MC8) in Geneva in 2011 (the first African to chair these organizations); making Nigeria the premier destination for investments in Africa, and launching the country's boldest industrialization agenda.
He was also responsible for structuring and financing the first standard gauge rail (Abuja to Kaduna) in Nigeria. He is also the Chairman of Marina Express, the first private sector developer of rail in Lagos. He sits on a number of Boards including the Advisory Board of the Queens Commonwealth Trust based in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Aganga remains one of the most regarded investor influencers for Nigeria, based on his extensive experience both internationally & domestically, and his track record in and out of government.
Some specific milestone achievements include: 1. Complete transformation of the Federal Government of Nigerian (FGN) Ministry of Trade & Investment (MITI) into Nigeria's number 1 economic ministry. 2. Operationalized Nigeria's debt resolution vehicle, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), to improve the liquidity and bring stability into banking industry after the global economic crisis working closely with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 3. As chair of the WTO MC8 ministerial conference, he laid the foundation for the first WTO trade agreement and also played a pivotal role in finalizing the agreement in Bali, Indonesia, in 2013. This was the first multilateral trade agreement in the 13 years of the WTO. 4. Initiated several policies to diversify the Nigerian economy towards making Nigeria less import dependent and creating jobs. These policies include the auto policy, sugar policy, cotton textile, garment policy, and co-developed a new rice production policy. He fully implemented the cement policy which led to self sufficiency in cement, the end of importation of cement into Nigeria, and for the first time in Nigerian history, companies started exporting cement. 5. Recorded major milestones as the FGN Minister of Trade & Investment which include: a) Turning manufacturing into the second fastest growing sector in the Nigerian economy [Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS)] b) Mobilized strategic investment and expansions in key strategic sectors where Nigeria was previously import dependent such as (sugarcane to sugar policy), sugar, auto, Petro chemical, refinery, fertilizer and cement. c) Recorded significant growth in the number of companies in the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector from 17.2 million in 2010 to 32.4 million in 2014, and the attendant employment created by this sector also increased astronomically from 37 million in 2010 to 60 million in 2014 (NBS). d) Initiated the countries first national quality infrastructure program with UNIDO. e) Reduced business registration cost by 50% for SME's and 25% for large companies. He also established a 24-hour registration service in some commercial cities, and launched an on-line registration platform. He also introduced the visa-on-arrival policy for investors. f) During his tenure as Minister of MITI, Nigeria was rated number 1 by the World Street Journal Frontiers Market index as the most watched frontiers market in the world. g) NLI was a catalyst for Nigeria's economic vision 20:2020.
Education and background
Aganga was educated at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria where he obtained a B.Sc Degree in Biological Sciences in 1977 and the University of Oxford, United Kingdom where he obtained a degree in Theology in 2000. Aganga qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1983.
Professional career
His professional career extends over four decades, holding a number of leadership positions both within the private and public sector. Mr. Aganga was previously a Managing Director with Goldman Sachs in London, working in prime brokerage, covering Hedge Funds.