Despite many criticisms that he lives in the name of his grandfather being the Grandson of the late Sage; Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Segun Awolowo Jnr. has strived hard to carve a niche for himself in the country’s political landscape as a tested and trusted board room guru representing the country’s export promotion council for close to a decade with impeccable result to show for his outstanding achievements. He started serving as a special assistant to the former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Traditional Institutions, Special Assistant on Legal Due Diligence,BPP and Special Assistant on Legal Matters where he learnt the ABC of governance before former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him as the head honcho of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council NEPC.
At a time when Nigeria is looking to diversify its economy from being an oil-dependent economy to also exporting its numerous products and raw materials to the rest of the world; Segun launched Zero Oil initiative and successfully increased exporting capacity of Nigerian farmers and traders. Home-made goods, export of raw materials to value-added products increased drastically. The foreign exchange revenue, to promote the value of Nigerian-made products and services abroad was also on the rise. His initiative also created several active and passive jobs and also racked in $30billion in foreign exchange for Nigeria.
With the wealth of knowledge showed in his capacity as MD/CEO NEPC to being unanimously elected as the President of National Trade Promotion Organizations (TPOs) from the ECOWAS Member States. In his capacity, Awolowo is currently moving around the world seeking synergy between world bodies for the improvement of the trade Promotion organization in Africa which will make the ECOWAS state stronger in terms of revenue generation and also promote inflow of goods and raw materials to the rest of the world. Weeks ago, he met with World Trade Organization head Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala where he went to solicit for support and introduce a new mechanism of the TPO Network to help boost trade amongst ECOWAS member states network to enable an effective transition from the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme to the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Sources averred that; he is quietly making moves to put Nigeria and West Africa on the world map in years to come. As the region is set to witness a boom in its locally made product to enable ECOWAS economic prosperity.
