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“In middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”
— Albert Einstein
By Enyeribe Ejiogu
It is significant that the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, was born in September 1973, the very year that then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, changed Nigeria’s academic calendar, to run from September to June, replacing the January to December calendar. This entailed a six-month transition period from January 1973 to June of the same year. It is also doubly significant that this thematic piece is published in September when the United States Senate renewed the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA for two years,, and President Donald Trump signed it into law.
In his evergreen “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington DC, civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, said the very words borrowed as title for this piece, to challenge Americans to recognise the urgency of the time and issues that drove millions of them to march or bus in from all parts of the United States, to hear him deliver the speech on August 28, 1963.
Back in 1992, a young Nigerian, Joseph (first name and surname concealed), also had a dream to hold the Festival of Nigerian Arts and Culture, FESNAC-USA, in Houston, Texas, to showcase the nation’s culture and creativity. Two and half years of background work, initial approvals by the City of Houston and Nigerian authorities, suffered a major blow when the United States Embassy declined the arrowhead a visa. In the intervening 34 years, the appreciation of Nigerian cultural expressions and creativity has grown in leaps and bounds as groups of Nigerians proudly and joyfully showcase the nation’s foods, dance-drama and couture to a growing audience of Americans and other nationals.
Eight years after that stillborn effort, the United States Congress passed the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2000, providing a legislative foundation, which Nigeria could have exploited to massively grow the export of value-added agro-based products, processed foods, finished apparels, artworks and décor craft to the huge American market. Unfortunately, and sadly too, Nigeria did not move to intentionally utilise the provisions of the AGOA law. Granted that seminars and talkshops were held, nothing concrete was achieved in real terms.
King used his speech to advise Americans to reject complacency, because it carries a heavy cost. He stressed that “tomorrow is today” and warned against the danger of being “too late” to do what is right.
What he said back then still resonates today in business and social circles, urging leaders to choose quick progress, decisive execution, and direct action over endless hesitation
Back in 2000, AGOA naturally presented Nigeria with difficulties. After all, China faced herculean challenges when Deng Xiaoping resolved to turn the backward communist nation into a socialist market-driven one that promoted private ownership of capital.
In essence, he understood the import of Albert Einstein’s quote: “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity,” which highlights that challenges are pathways to growth.
By reframing setbacks as learning experiences and focusing on solutions, individuals can build resilience and emerge stronger. This mindset transforms difficulties into stepping stones for success. This requires using tough times to build resilience by developing patience, mental strength, and confidence.
President of Warien Rose Foundation, Dr Efe Anaughe, like other Nigerians, is eager to see the country develop capacities in various areas to boost economic growth. This explains why she is displeased with how Nigeria has seemingly frittered away the AGOA opportunity. The foundation, which she heads, has different platforms for promoting women entrepreneurs, thereby giving expression to the women financial inclusivity initiatives of the United Nations and other organisations.
She told Sunday Sun: “I am concerned that Nigeria has not sufficiently exploited the enormous opportunities offered by the United States’ African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) over the years, particularly as a platform for expanding exports and creating meaningful opportunities for women-owned and women-led businesses.
“With the recent renewal of AGOA by President Trump, I believe the Honourable Minister of Trade & Investment has a fresh opportunity to change this narrative and ensure that Nigeria moves from merely having access to AGOA to strategically using it to grow Nigerian businesses and exports.
“Through our Women in Business & Export initiative, the Warien Rose Foundation is particularly interested in seeing Nigerian women entrepreneurs positioned to take advantage of this renewed opportunity. This renewal must not become another missed opportunity; we must turn AGOA into action, access, exports and economic empowerment for Nigerians.”
AGOA provides duty free access to the US market to 6700 Sub-Saharan African goods, including apparel, motor vehicles, agricultural produce, leather, craft and machinery.
The current extension is the third one. The second extension occurred in 2015 under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), during the tenure of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. This third extension has coincidentally fallen under the first term of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who in 2024 appointed Dr Jumoke Oluwole as the Minister of Industries, Trade and Investments.
It is even more saddening that until now Nigeria appears not to have a documented AGOA utilisation strategy, whereas 19 of the 32 nations eligible to benefit from AGOA have published their AGOA Utilisation Strategy. Such a document provides a roadmap that guides prospective investors in AGOA-related ventures to identify areas to invest in the value chain.
If Nigeria had intentional and visionary leaders, the country could have developed non-oil industrial capacity under the AGOA programme.
Available data show that Nigeria exported agricultural goods worth $75 million, but only $7.4 million got into the US market under AGOA.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Dr Obiora Madu, chief executive of Multimix Limited, who is an expert on supply chain and logistics management said: AGOA has given Nigeria opportunity, but we lack the export ecosystem to exploit it.”
As it is today, the baton for Nigeria’s participation in AGOA has been passed to Dr Jumoke Oduwole. On this score, Madu advises that the country can still snatch a semblance of victory from the jaws of defeat by going back to the drawing board, to build an AGOA export strategy that can be executed within the two-year extension period.
He said: “We must pick about five to 10 products that we can compete in – cocoa, cashew, sesame, ginger, shea, leather, apparel, including processed food and cosmetics. Then identify buyers, get their specifications, get their volumes and their prices.”
He explained that the country should focus on developing and growing them rapidly, calling on the passion and ingenuity of Nigerian entrepreneurs and the banking industry, which would entail aggregating supply, processing products, meeting international standards and obtaining certifications from the United States FDA and other agencies.
The Federal Government on its part should actively provide the enabling environment. This would greatly contribute to achieving President Bola Tinubu’s vision of Nigeria becoming a US$ 1 trillion economy.
From the moment President Trump appended his famous signature assenting to the renewal of AGOA a big burden was placed on the shoulders of Dr Oduwole, who President appointed as Minister in October 2024, with a mandate to work on boosting non-oil exports, driving industrial growth, and improving ease of doing business.
Oduwole is an accomplished academic with solid cognate experience. With bachelor, master and doctorate degrees in law from the University of Lagos, University of Cambridge, and Stanford University, she served as a visiting scholar at the University of Houston Law Centre, Houston, Texas USA.
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.
Before going into academia, she had corporate experience garnered from Guaranty Trust Bank and First City Monument, in addition to serving on the Board of Ecobank Nigeria Plc.
In 2023, she founded the No Limits Nigeria Initiative (NLNI) in 2023, an organisation focused on promoting young people to engage in nation-building.
Female entrepreneurs in fashion, leather and decor craft industries being promoted by Creatives Amplify, are earnestly praying for Dr Jumoke Oduwole to perform another Darman Miracle for Nigeria with the AGOA extension.
