President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has booted out Jelani Aliyu from his position as the Director General of National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), replacing him with Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, Chief Operating Officer of Jet Systems Auto Company.
Appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari, Aliyu headed the council from 2017 to 2021, when he secured a reappointed for another four year term to terminate 2025.
Aliyu’s hope was however crumbled, as Tinubu, in a statement signed by Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the President on media & publicity, announced replacement of heads of all the agencies under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment among which is NADDC.
A graduate of management & accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, the new NADDC boss, Osanipin, who also holds a master of business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Benin, is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) with ICAN, and a Certified Information System Auditor (CISA) with ISACA.
Osinapin’s wide-ranging professional qualifications as an account, auditor, financial manager and advisor, have afforded him opportunities at the highest levels of management within Africa’s corporate space, where he has been able to direct strategy, optimize processes and deliver optimum results.
A consummate professional, whose nearly three-decade professional experience spans multiple industries including banking, finance and mobility, the new NADDC boss, Osanipin has led and contributed to significant projects with far-reaching impact in Africa.
A dedicated pursuer and advocate of continuous self-development, Osanipin has attended highly valuable and impactful courses locally and internationally. Notable among these are courses on corporate finance, value creation, revenue assurance, technology, risk and control, audit, cashless payments, and software assurance from London Business School, ISACA, IBFC, and Digital Encode, respectively.
His diverse skill set, multi-faceted professional capacity, and adaptability have seen him transcend financial roles to undertake full-fledged corporate management roles where he has been saddled with the responsibility of defining the strategic ambitions of foremost organizations, plotting their course forward, and driving the organizational vehicle towards actualization of set goals.
Notable among Osinapin’s corporate world experience are his over one decade career in Africa’s frontline financial institution, Zenith Bank Plc, and his role as COO of Jet Systems Automobile Industry Ltd. While rising through the ranks at Zenith Bank Plc as branch head of operations, overall branch head, and finally as IT/System Auditor at the head office, underscoring the depth of his cognate experience, it was at Jet that Osanipin defined himself as an adaptable professional and innovator.
As COO of Jet, Osanipin took on the challenge of revolutionizing Nigeria’s mobility industry head on, developing processes and building strategic partnerships that led to the emergence of some of the first set of home-grown electric vehicles to come out of Africa.
An unrelenting disruptor, he continues to work with his team and partners to expand Nigeria’s EV product line and infrastructure, ensuring that the country becomes a model for fully integrated and mass-accessible EV value chain.
Following his appointment in 2017, the sacked NADDC helmsman was hyped as a leading car designer with the general Motors, United States, with potential of revolutionizing the nation’s automobile industry.
But during throughout his tenure, the long anticipated National Automobile Industry Development Plan (NAIDP), failed to make it into the nation’s statutes book, as Aliyu was unable to convince his principal about the essence and the importance of the bill to the growth of the nation’s auto industry.
Though loudly hyped as co-designer of the Oldsmobile Bravada, Buick Rendezvous and the Opel Astra and lead exterior designer for the Pontiac G6 and the Chevrolet Volt, Aliyu dashed the hopes of Nigerians, who hoped his appointment would give birth to a true and unique Nigerian car design. It never happened.
Neither was Aliyu able to convince his principal, former President Buhari about the importance of signing into law the National Automobile Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) bill, which the National Assembly, twice passed into law.
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