Being the Speech by His Excellency Seyi Makinde, FNSE, Executive Governor of Oyo State at Harvard Kennedy School on 22 April 2026, Themed “From First Office to Lasting Impact: Industrialisation, Leadership, and the Discipline of Continuity”
Good afternoon.
Industrialisation in Africa is often discussed as a policy ambition,
but rarely as a lived experience. In the next twenty minutes, I will share what industrialisation means to about 10 million people who live in one of the largest States in Nigeria.
My name is Oluseyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State, Nigeria and over the past seven years, I have had the responsibility of translating industrialisation as policy ambition into execution.
When I assumed office on 29 May 2019, I had a plan. We created the Oyo State Roadmap for Accelerated Development 2019-2023. This roadmap was anchored on industrialisation.
When discussing industrialisation in Africa, we often speak in abstracts. We talk about policy frameworks, economic theory and long-term projections.
But industrialisation is not abstract.
It is roads that form rural-urban linkages.
It is power that is required for production and processing factories.
It is systems that outlive the people who build them.
And at its core, it is political leadership.
But not just any type of political leadership.
The kind that can take responsibility for outcomes even without prior political experience.
Because sometimes, the most important question is not how long you have been a politician, but what you are able to build when given the opportunity to lead.
This is my story.
I became governor without the benefits of a long political apprenticeship.
My background was in electrical engineering and business. In my line of work, outcomes are measured, what matters most are results.
This background shaped my approach to leadership:
- A strong emphasis on execution
- Grounded in systems
- More long-term structure and thinking
Now, truth be told, over time, my approach has had to align with political realities. Sometimes compromises have had to be reached. Governance is not like experimenting in a laboratory. You are dealing with people, with interests, with history and expectations. It is politics in its rawest form.
But even with all of that, one thing has remained constant for me. Development led by industrialisation responds to disciplined implementation of blueprints. It does not respond to slogans. It does not respond to wishful thinking. It responds to clarity, consistency and follow-through.
And so, one of the most important lessons I have learnt as governor of Oyo State which has shaped how we do things is: The only business that government should have in business is to create an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.
That sounds simple, but it has very serious implications.
You do not industrialise by announcing factories. You industrialise by fixing the conditions that make factories possible. You industrialise by creating an environment where production can happen, where goods can move, where investors can trust the stability of policy, where infrastructure lowers cost instead of increasing it.
And that requires alignment across infrastructure, agriculture, human capital and policy direction.
In Oyo State, our blueprint was built on four pillars: the economy, driven by infrastructure, agribusiness and more recently, tourism; education; health; and security.
But our foundation was infrastructure.
And we recognised that there would be no meaningful progress if we focused on low-hanging fruits; building short roads within the capital city that generate quick applause. Instead, we focused on strategic projects with long-term benefits.
We kicked off with a sixty-five-kilometre road project linking the State capital, Ibadan to Oke-Ogun Zone, which is our breadbasket. That project was designed for economic effect. It cut down travel time by more than two hours and gave farmers easier access to markets. It made movement easier, faster and more predictable. And once we saw the proof of concept, once we saw how that singular intervention positively affected economic activity, we did not stop there. We proceeded to link other economic zones, building over 300 kilometres of rural-urban connectivity.
This has resulted in economic growth. For instance, just last month, Oyo State became the second largest VAT-contributing State in Nigeria, second only to Lagos State. An indication of the increased economic activities in the State.
We have also grown our annual internally generated revenue by over 296%, from N26 billion in 2019 to N103 billion in 2025.
Yes, the foundation was infrastructure, but the anchor was agribusiness.
We knew from the beginning that our comparative advantage as a State was agriculture. Over eighty per cent of our land is arable. So, for us, it was almost a matter of common sense to ask how agriculture could become a lever for broader economic growth.
But even here, we had to be deliberate.
We were not interested in remaining at the level of subsistence agriculture. We wanted to create the environment that would support medium to large-scale processing and production. We wanted to move from simply growing produce to investing in value chains.
Back in the 1950s, Oyo State became home to farm settlements. Over the years, many of them became moribund. So, we chose one of those settlements, Fasola, as a proof of concept.
One thing that has remained constant in this journey is our willingness to test what works. After checking the data, the science and the logic, we try to execute in a way that allows theory to confront reality.
Because governance must have room for learning. There were instances where our assumptions did not hold. Before assuming office, for example, I had this brilliant idea that we could easily export maize to Botswana. [I am still getting flack for that]. But when we took a closer look at the data, it became clear that maize was not the crop we could competitively export at that point. So, we shifted attention to cassava.
That willingness to adjust without losing direction is important.
Now, back to Fasola. The reconstruction of the farm settlement there became such a success story that the African Development Bank adopted it as its first Agricultural Transformation Centre in Nigeria. Through that partnership, it is now known as the Oyo State Agribusiness Transformation Centre, Fasola.
Today, it hosts 14 agribusinesses with a combined investment of N20 billion. Within that ecosystem, production and processing are taking place in an environment that begins to resemble what many would call a near first-world set-up. We have milk production, tomato production and processing, cassava production and processing, and more recently, we have introduced the sugarcane value chain.
For me, this is one of the clearest illustrations of what industrialisation means in practical terms. It is not an abstract dream. It is the shift from subsistence agriculture to value-chain-driven production. And I believe that is one of the major shifts many African countries still need to make.
If Africa is to move from being merely a production hub, where we grow food and export raw produce, to a continent that processes what it produces and captures more value, then we must embrace the industrialisation thinking. And that thinking must begin with infrastructure, roads and power supply, in particular.
Of course, we all know these things do not come cheap.
Every entrepreneur knows that growth cannot happen without capital. In Oyo State, we knew very early that we could not rely on borrowing alone. We learnt from the experience of others, and from our own context, that external borrowing in a volatile economy can keep a government permanently trapped in debt. Exchange rate volatility alone can turn yesterday’s investment decision into tomorrow’s debt burden.
So, we chose, in many cases, to pursue institutional partnerships.
We worked with and coordinated actors beyond government. We accessed support from development finance institutions, international partners and private sector investors. After the Fasola Hub took off, we partnered further with the African Development Bank on two more hubs, one in Ijaiye, Ibadan, and another in Eruwa, in Ibarapa, another zone outside the capital. We are also working with the French Government to create a Rungis-style wholesale agri-food market in one of the hubs in support of the wider ecosystem.
Now, let me turn to another element without which industrialisation will remain an illusion. Interestingly, the broader theme for this event already points to it, transparency, accountability and civic engagement.
I have come to believe that industrialisation fails where trust is weak and where policies are unpredictable.
The stabilisation of the policy environment was one part of the work. We tried to address that by producing clear governance blueprints, so that stakeholders knew the direction in which the State was headed. As we moved from the first four years into the next phase, there was continuity of direction. There was no need for investors or citizens to keep guessing where government would turn next.
But trust was a different matter entirely.
All over the world, politicians are mistrusted, and often for good reason. In Nigeria, you may have to work four times as hard to earn half the trust politicians elsewhere receive. That is simply the reality. So, for us, transparency could not be optional. It had to be deliberate.
We made it a duty to communicate consistently with the people. We held regular media chats with call-in segments. We held town hall meetings in different parts of the State. We set up a feedback mechanism. I can say confidently that Oyo State is the only State in Nigeria with a functioning social media feedback system through which citizens can ask questions about policy, raise concerns about infrastructure or service delivery, and get direct responses from the government.
Personally, I also send out bi-weekly newsletters, and citizens can respond directly to me by replying to those newsletters. I read their responses and these often guide the decisions we make on their behalf.
We have done this consistently throughout our administration.
And I believe that consistency has contributed to the stability required for economic growth. Because consistency builds confidence, and confidence is itself a form of infrastructure.
On a reflective note, one of the things I have learnt is that coming from outside traditional politics gave me a certain advantage. Decisions could be approached from first principles. Systems could be questioned. Outcomes could be prioritised over optics.
But that advantage also comes with its own difficulties.
There is resistance from entrenched structures. There is pressure from political cycles. There is the expectation of quick wins in what is, by its very nature, a long-term game.
And that brings me to what I consider the most difficult part of industrialisation – continuity in difficult times.
The theme of this session is also about continuity.
Starting is one thing. Sustaining is another.
And as I approach the end of my second term in office, the weight of continuity bears down on me in a very real way.
Because the risks to continuity are real.
We met a State that was deeply troubled. Today, we are gradually coming out of those trenches. And naturally, people are concerned about what happens next. I read the worries. I hear the anxieties. I understand them.
I also understand how systems can drift away from democratic intent, sometimes with the support of people who genuinely mean well. Fear can make people want certainty at all costs. But this is precisely where leadership must be firm. The systems entrenched in the constitution must be allowed to work. Continuity cannot mean personal extension, actively or covertly. It has to mean institutional endurance.
For a fact, continuity often breaks, at the point of leadership transition because this is when policy reversals happen, economic shocks emerge, and institutional fatigue begins to set in.
So, the question becomes, how do you build systems that survive you?
For me, three things matter.
The first is institutionalisation over individualisation.
If progress depends on one person, it is temporary. If it is embedded in systems, it stands a better chance of enduring. People have asked me, especially in recent times, who I will throw my weight behind to take over governance in the State. And I have responded by saying something that can be misunderstood, so I think it deserves grounding in reality: loyalty to the State over loyalty to me.
Now, of course, I am human. Naturally, one wants loyalty. But institutionalisation demands something higher. It demands loyalty to principles, to systems, to the long-term good of the State. So, if I ever wanted something that was not beneficial to the State, I would hope that those around me would have the courage to say no.
The second way to build systems is through clarity of direction.
Industrialisation requires long-term thinking. Leadership must resist the temptation to sacrifice future-facing development for short-term approval. We see this tension clearly in the 110 km Circular Road project which we are building to encircle the State capital, Ibadan. This is a road that was conceived decades ago, but successive administrations left it untouched. From our standpoint, it is not just a road; it is an economic development corridor. Many others understandably see it more immediately, in terms of personal real estate gain. That creates tension. That creates resistance. And sometimes those pressures lead governments to abandon projects that are meant for long-term public good. We have chosen to stay with it. We plan to complete the first two segments, and we hope the next administration will complete the third.
The third way to build systems is by building belief.
Investors, citizens and stakeholders must believe that the system will hold. Without belief, capital begins to withdraw and progress starts to stall. In many democracies, and certainly in ours, the final year of an administration is often overtaken by politics.
So, when people speak of a four-year tenure, the truth is that you may only have three effective years, or in some cases even less, before politics begins to distort decision-making. Investors become cautious. Capital slows down. And the decisions are postponed.
We have not completely solved that problem. I cannot stand here and claim that we have. But I do know that belief can only be built through consistency. Over time, the hope is that our institutions become strong enough and our systems become resilient enough that transitions will no longer create the same level of uncertainty.
That is my hope.
And that brings me to my final point.
Industrialisation in Africa ultimately rises or falls on leadership
on the decisions we, as leaders, take, and the ones we choose to sustain.
It requires discipline
Consistency
and leadership that is willing to stay the course, even when the results are not immediate.
It will happen through leaders who think in systems.
Through governments that prioritise continuity.
Through institutions that outlive individuals.
But for me, as I begin to count down the final months of my time in office, the question has become more personal.
Not what we have started,
but what will continue.
Not what we built,
but what will endure.
Because in the end, leadership is not measured by how long you stay in office.
It is measured by how long what you built continues to work,
after you are gone.
Thank you.
Seyi Makinde
22 April 2026