Please fill out the form (email, name, and phone number) below to register for the webinar. Also, scroll down to click the Blue” Register” button to submit your form; thanks. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. -Talking Trade Team.
Talking Trade Webinar – July 2023 Edition: Floating Naira and New Economic Policies: Renewed Hope for Nigeria’s Non-oil Exports?
Date: Saturday, July 15th, 2023. (Please note the new date. In honour of Canada Day, our monthly webinar for July will now hold on Saturday, July 15th 2023. We regret any inconvenience caused by this postponement.)
Time: 12-noon E.T. (U.S. & Canada) 5 pm (West Africa Time)
Join us for another webinar on July 15th. The guest speaker, Engr. Titus Olowookere will examine how the new floating naira policy affects the non-oil sector. He will be ably assisted by two experts – Mr Wilson Erumebor, Economist, The Nigeria Economic Summit Group, and Dr (Mrs) Omolara Akanji, Retired Director,
Trade and Exchange, Central Bank of Nigeria.
Guest Speaker: Engr. Titus Olowookere -President & CEO-US-Africa Trade Council
Moderating Expert -Olufemi Boyede, CITP, CEO Koinonia Global Services and Chief Host/Convener TATRIG Webinars
Lady Kay – Anchor/ Moderator TATRIG Webinars
"Floating Naira and New Economic Policies: Renewed Hope for Nigeria's Non-Oil Exports?"
Engr. Titus Olowookere
Guest Speaker
Titus Olowokere is the President & CEO of the U.S.-Africa Trade Council. He is Visiting Senior Fellow (VSF) at the Global Entrepreneurship Research and Innovation Center (GERIC) at the University of Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), President Emeritus of the Alliance of Nigerian Organizations in Georgia (ANOG) and Director of Administration of NICORE. This organization facilitates entrepreneurship and economic development of Nigerians and their communities in the United States of America. He is the Managing Partner of CrystalOrbit Group, a business focused on technology innovation, trade and investment.
Titus has held a succession of increasingly responsible roles in Engineering, Information Technology and Sales/Marketing management. He has served as the Regional Capability Area Lead – database technologies at Accenture, a leading systems integration and technology consulting company. While at Accenture, Titus Olowokere served as Information Technology Security subject matter expert and led Gap Analysis and Security compliance solutions for major European bank and State Government projects. In addition, he has worked in various senior management capacities for the State of Georgia in the USA, Business Process Automation (BPA), Austin, TX, John Holt Nigeria, PLC, General Motors, UAC of Nigeria PLC., and as Chief Strategy Officer at ipNX Nigeria Ltd, a leading Fiber Optic Service Telecommunications company in Nigeria.
As a committed “Community Organizer”, Titus has nurtured the Alliance of Nigerian Organizations in Georgia, ANOG, a non-profit organization. ANOG is the umbrella organization of the Nigerian Community that caters for collective interests. It represents the single, unified voice of all Nigerian non-profit associations in Georgia, USA, across the community, tribal, ethnic, educational, social, and political-economic lines.
Engr. Titus Olowokere
President & CEO of the US-Africa Trade Council
Speaking engagements / Presentations / Awards
– Conference Speaker, 2013 Nigerians in Diaspora Week, Abuja, Jul 26th, 2013
– Published several articles on trade & investment, entrepreneurship, African Diaspora
– Honored as one of the recipients of the 2012 “African Leadership Award” by the African Leadership Magazine (www.africanleadershipmagazine.com) for demonstrating leadership skills among Africans in the Diaspora and for excellence and commitment to the Africa project. Oct 7th, 2012.
– Delivered keynote address at the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) workshop organized by Kennesaw State University for distinguished members of the Judiciary from Nigeria. The audience included Supreme Court justices, the president of the Federal Appeals Court, president of Customary Court of Appeal, grand khadis of Sharia Courts, and chief judges of State High Courts, Sept 12th, 2012
– Panellist at a symposium on “Nigeria Diaspora Commission – dynamics and challenges” at Nigerian in Diaspora (NIDO) World Convention in Washington, DC Other panelists include Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa (Chair of House Committee on Diaspora). Moderated by Prof. Ola Kassim, Nigerian pathologist resident in Canada. – May 26th, 2012.
– Keynote speaker – Eko Club International Convention, Atlanta, GA. – July 2011.
Titus volunteers for the Hands-On Atlanta in his little spare time, where he serves as Programs Manager. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Dallas and has a passion for travel. He has visited, by road, about 35 States in the USA, logging about 30,000 mileage.
Wilson Erumebor
(Guest Discussant)
Wilson Erumebor’s career journey began in 2008, where he served as a Research Analyst and Student Associate at ValueFronteira Limited, an economic research and consulting firm. At VF, he prepared monthly macroeconomic reports, industry reports, money and financial market updates and wrote articles on economic issues.
After that, Wilson moved to Agusto & Co., Nigeria’s top research and credit ratings company, where he built his Macroeconomic and Industry Analysis skills. At Agusto & Co., he conducted macroeconomic analysis and prepared detailed industry reports for clients such as commercial banks, pension industry players, financiers, etc.
From Agusto & Co., Wilson joined the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), a foremost private sector-led think tank committed to developing a competitive Nigerian economy. At the NESG, he serves as a senior economist and leads several research projects, including the annual NESG Macroeconomic Outlook, which sets the NESG’s advocacy agenda for the year. Since its inception, the report has gained significant global readership and is a reference tool for policymakers and business leaders on key policy and economic issues surrounding the Nigerian Economy.
Wilson’s latest and exciting project is the “Nigeria in 2050 Scenarios Project”, which envisions Three Scenarios for Nigeria as the country approaches 2050 and outlines what the country must do to achieve the best-case scenario, Nigeria Rises. He presented the scenarios at the 25th Nigerian Economic Summit. The Summit had in attendance Nigeria’s President, cabinet ministers, state governors, and captains of industry.
His love for Economics extends beyond professional engagements. Wilson holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Delta State University and a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Lagos, both in Nigeria. He is a PhD researcher at SOAS, University of London, working on Structural Transformation and Economic Inclusion of African economies with a specific focus on Nigeria.
Wilson is a member of the Royal Economic Society, London, UK, and a senior research fellow at The FATE Institute, Lagos, Nigeria.
Dr. (Mrs.) Omolara Ololade Akanji
(Guest Discussant)
Dr. (Mrs.) Omolara Ololade Akanji worked with the Central Bank of Nigeria as a Director of the Trade and Exchange Department with the responsibility of ensuring the management of the Foreign Exchange market and Efficient conduct of the Trade regulations such as the International Trade Finance, Trade Malpractices Committee and the conduct of the wholesale Dutch Action and Bureau de change liberation.
Dame. Akanji retired from the CBN in December 2007 and was recalled to the CBN as a consultant to the Governor on Statistics during 2008-2011. She graduated from the University of Ibadan and had her Master’s from the University of Reading, Berkshire, UK. She had her postgraduate in Statistics from the School of Mathematics at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. She had her PhD in Finance from the European American University, Dominican Republic. She is an Alumni of Harvard School of Governance with Certification in Trade and Monetary Policy. She has attended over 5 Executive Training at the Harvard Business School, ranging from Negotiation to Strategic thinking and Effective Board Management from 2002 to 2019
She is an ICC Certified trainer on Incoterms and other ICC rules. A certified trainer on Global Corporate Governance and Leadership for IFC/FITC. An Honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. A member of the Nigeria Institute of Management, a Fellow and Certified member of Cost Management, Certified member of the International Consultants (2008). Fellow of the Institute of Information Management (FIIM)(2018). A member of the International Centre for Emerging Technology ICET Joint Working Group (2019).
She is the Vice Chairman of the Banking Commission, ICC Nigeria and also a part of the ISBP 745 Drafting Group. She recently concluded her tenure as an Independent Director of Sterling Bank Plc and an Independent Director of Interswitch Company. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Sofomax Consulting Limited.
Expected Outputs and Outcomes
The outputs of the Trade Webinar series will include:
a. Webinar Report: A summary of key findings and policy recommendations distilled from each session, combinations of sessions, papers, and keynote speeches.
b. The proceedings of the webinars, incorporating relevant comments and feedback from peer review and webinar participants will be published after the episode or quarter.
c. Presentation of these findings and recommended solutions will be made to relevant governments agencies, ministries and parastatals as well as other identified stakeholders.
d. Our inhouse team will track results of the webinar series, and make updates available to subscribers and stakeholders.
The Moderator /Anchor
Kemi Amusan popularly known as Lady Kay is a linguist (French and English), an Editor, a Crisis Prevention Intervention Trainer and a community leader (leading several thousands of blacks) as the immediate past president of the Nigerian-Canadian Association in Greater Toronto Area, Canada. She currently works as an Assistant Registrar in a great university in the Caribbean. Lady Kay gives back to the community as the Senior Advocate of Global Women Ambassadors, Canada. In this role, she organizes programs to educate, elevate and facilitate many socio-cultural, entrepreneurship, immigration, educative, empowerment programs for families. Lady Kay is also the host of Agbajo Owo and Ask Lady Kay – the broadcasting arms of Global Women Ambassadors that seek to ‘build the community, one family at a time’.
The Host /Convener
Olufemi Boyede, CITP has over thirty years of professional experience in international trade and strategy, policy advocacy and human capital development. He has broad expertise in trade and business environment improvement, regional integration frameworks, trade linkages, services exports, public-private dialogue and advocacy on non-oil exports and enterprise development issues.
He has a strong background in private sector management positions and consulting roles in the business, trade and logistics communities, and more recently has held numerous senior trade and export development positions in Nigeria’s public and private sectors. In addition to several Consultancy assignments with International Agencies including the World Bank, DFID, GIZ, USAID, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Trade Centre (ITC).
‘Femi’s 30 years of international trade expertise places him in a leveraged position to provide professional advice to worldwide with clients (both importers and exporters) helping them to successfully navigate the day to day complexities of the international trade industry.
His passion to increase awareness and equip international trade stakeholders forms the basis for these series of webinars.