Dr Joshua Oyejide Olagbaju is a highly resourceful Nigerian academic and an outstanding management and economic consultant. He joined the Management Consultancy Division of Coopers and Lybrand in 1990 after considerable teaching and research experience at the tertiary level – especially Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Ado Ekiti and Ambrose Alli University.

Today, he is the Managing Director of BDO Management Consulting Ltd which is a division of BDO Professional Services, Nigeria. These several years, some of the major assignments, research projects executed and technical reports produced by Dr. Olagbaju have touched on development in Nigeria, Africa and globally.

Born in 1950, Joshua Olagbaju attended St. Andrews College, Oyo where he earned a Teachers’ Grade II Certificate in 1970. In 1975, he graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife with a Second Class Upper Division in Economics (Econometrics and Statistics). He bagged his Ph.D Economics (International Finance) from the same university in 1980.

His lecturing and research experience in the university covers areas such as international economics, applied economic theory and quantitative techniques as well as consultancy experience in institutional studies, capacity building, appraisals, feasibility studies, management trainings, market analysis, project and sectoral studies for public and private organisations.

While in Coopers and Lybrand Associates, Dr. Olagbaju played lead role in several research studies and engagements involving both public and private organisations as well as international institutions. These include amongst others: conduct of several surveys, sectoral and prioritisation studies, strategic planning, organization and operational system review and financial restructuring, economic profile studies, marketing and feasibility studies, fund management operation studies, capacity building and wage indexation/price index studies for public and private sector clients and international agencies such as AfDB, World Bank, IFC and UNDP, UNICEF, WHO etc.

The social and economic development of Nigeria has been a major focus of much of the work Olagbaju has been engaged in. In the year 2002 for instance, he worked on the Survey and Design of Institutional Strengthening Framework for FADAMA II.  A World Bank – sponsored project, FADAMA II is a dry season farming project designed to achieve self-sufficiency in food production and earn foreign exchange for Nigeria.

In 2002, Olagbaju was involved in the Vocational Training Sector Study of the Niger Delta Regional Development Plan. The study which was done under the auspices of GTZ/NDDC was a comprehensive survey of vocational training infrastructure in the nine Niger Delta States with a view to mapping out a regional master plan.

Between 2004 and 2006, he did a Survey of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in South East Geopolitical Zone for SMEDAN. From 2007 to 2008, he worked on an IFC/MSME Project tagged Baseline Survey On Impact Assessment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. For the same sponsors, he did another project which was A Survey on Access to Finance Programs – An Impact Assessment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

On behalf of the African Development Bank and Nigeria’s Bank of Industry he is currently working on Institutional Capacity Building within the Bank of Industry and SME Customers. This programme is focused on enhancing the bank’s ability to efficiently extend loan finance to the Small and Medium – Sized Enterprise (SME) market in Nigeria and to enhance the ability of these borrowers to grow their businesses successfully, with a view to contributing to the socio – economic development of Nigeria as well as helping them meet their obligations to the bank.

Olagbaju is working on a similar programme focused on enhancing the ability of SME exporters in Nigeria to access NEXIM Bank’s loan finance to grow their export business successfully. This programme is under AfDB/NEXIM Bank sponsorship.

The above are only a few of the numerous and extensive work this research expert has done in the socio-economic sphere.

Dr Olagbaju has done a lot of work in the area of good governance and capacity building. For instance, he is currently rendering consultancy services to support the Public Accounts Committee of the Kaduna State House of Assembly. Between 2016 and 2017, he rendered consultancy services in a state – wide survey for the identification of new tax payers and support for the development of an electronic database management system for tax administration and management in the 21 Local Government Areas of Anambra State. The project was under the auspices of the World Bank and the Anambra State Government. Within the same period, he did a similar project in Bayelsa State which was under the sponsorship of the World Bank and the State Government.

Projects related to the above which have to do with good governance, accountability and financial management have been executed under Olagbaju’s supervision in Kano, Ekiti and Edo states. The impact of his research and management consultancy prowess has also been greatly felt in important Federal Government institutions like the Central Bank of Nigeria, Education Trust Fund (ETF), Federal Office of Statistics, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Federal Ministry of Works.

Many companies in Nigeria have benefitted from his services. They include Chevron, MTN Nigeria, Nigerian Cable and Wire Company, KHS Machines Nigeria Ltd, CETCO Oil Services Ltd and Nexans Kabelmetal Plc.

Olagbaju is a member of many professional bodies like the Nigerian Economic Society, the London Statistical Society where he is a Fellow and the Nigerian Institute of Management. He is a Certified Management Trainer by both CMD and NIM.

For an exceptionally brilliant and hardworking man, a lot of acknowledgement and recognition have come his way. He was a University Scholar at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University).

Olagbaju is a very committed Christian and a Senior Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. He is an ordained Honorary National Elder of the church.

It is in recognition of his contribution to national development in the field of Management Consulting that Dr Joshua Oyejide Olagbaju is deemed worthy to be conferred with the Development In Nigeria Merit Award which is part of the 2017 PSR National Awards.