Recently, I was asked to share some brief reflections with a group of middle level managers on leading execution. Please, find below my reflections. 1.      Strategy is mere statement of intent unless it gets done. Organizations need to get better in translating their strategy intent and conceptual thoughts, usually in various PowerPoint documents to action and results. Leading execution can therefore be reframed as “From PowerPoint to Action” or  “From PowerPoint to Results”. 2.      The nexus of increasing size of organizations or the ..read more

An essay written six years ago (2010), even more relevant now given current asset quality challenges in Nigerian banks. Strategy and Public Policy: Managerial Compensation and Risk Incentives in the...: By Olu Akanmu Given our recent experience and the need to rebuild public trust in the financial system, we will need to reshape the values ..read more

By Olu Akanmu "and the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows” -Genesis 41:4 “and the thin heads of grain swallowed the seven healthy, full heads” -Genesis 41: 7 This essay discusses what businesses can do to pull through the years of recession. The years of lean cows are the years of famine akin to the years of economic recession. When Pharaoh dreamt as above in the biblical history, Egypt mobilized to prepare for famine or economic recession by building strong national reserves of grains in its years of boom and abundance. With such strong national reserves or savi ..read more

Keynote Address by Olu Akanmu, Fellow of Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy,  at the 89TH Annual Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, in Minna, Niger State.   This 89th National Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) is happening at a most critical time in the nation with the Nigerian economy in a recession characterized by the decline in the official naira exchange rate by more than 55% over the last one year. In the parallel market, we see an even more significant decline in the exchange rate at more than 90% over the same period. While the government ..read more

First published August 25, 2016. By Olu Akanmu There is an emerging debate whether since the Nigerian government buckled to float the naira, with the parallel and official still widely far apart, whether the flexible exchange rate policy was the right thing after-all.  This view argues that the much-expected private capital flows to the Nigeria with a market -driven exchange rate, which will complement government supply of the dollar to the currency market has not materialized as largely theorized and expected. The parallel market rate continues to fall even as the naira does same in the ..read more

By Olu Akanmu If there is any lesson the federal government must learn from the lingering petrol crises, in the unabated long queues at our petrol stations, it is that that a government cannot substitute itself for the market no matter the depth of its patriotic intentions.  From the management of the foreign exchange to petrol markets, we see an economic management paradigm that markets do not matter, that a government can take over the fundamental functions of markets from the supply of goods, to the determination of demand and the ultimate fixing of prices. Nothing illustrates the fall ..read more

By Olu Akanmu Whereas the Nigerian monetary authority fixed the official exchange rate at N196 to a dollar, there is today a near 50% differential in the parallel market rate to the official rate.  The fact that the exchange rate is not market determined, that the price of the dollar is not determined by the equilibrium of demand and supply means significantly that the dollar is officially priced far below its true market value. The incentive for rent seeking and price arbitrage, given the increasing differential has never been stronger. We are back in the days of essential commodity or ..read more

By Olu Akanmu One world, one prosperity or one poverty. That is the lesson of the migrant crisis now in Europe. In a globally integrated world, we all have a shared destiny on the long run. Syria looked so far from Europe but now it is now so close. Europe, the US and the OECD must do more to support democracy and good governance in developing countries, support the building of strong institutions but not by being confused and indecisive as we have seen in Syria. From Iraq to Libya to Syria, Europe and the U.S must learn the lesson of how not to intervene in a country to entrench democracy, w ..read more

By Olu Akanmu It is important that President Buhari should not squander his political goodwill early in his administration. He will need that goodwill to manage and navigate through complex and difficult economic conditions ahead. This is one of the governance lessons from the failure of former President Jonathan. The President clearly by the lack of clear fiscal action on the economy, his attempt to revamp the national airline, revamp the NNPC refineries rather than privatizing them seem to be economically oriented to big and populist government in a period of constrained fiscal resources.&n ..read more

By Olu Akanmu Dear General Buhari, Congratulations on your well earned election victory. You were dogged and stayed the course over the last sixteen years from the ballot box to the court room and back to the ballot box. As our incoming President, who I believe will like to be in touch with the citizens, please allow me to share a citizen’s perspective of the challenges ahead. First, it is important to recognize that while it has been tough to win the elections, it might be actually tougher to govern. Winning the elections might be a far, more easier task than governing and fulfilling the e ..read more