Mr. Fidel O. Odey’s Profile
Lead Consultant on Fiscal Governance & Institutions Project (FGIP) – Federal Ministry of Finance HQ
Fidel is an accomplished and self-motivated professional with a passion for driving change through innovation and effective approaches. He displays dedication to social development, mobilization, and transformation. His expertise encompasses public sector management, international development, matters of development effectiveness and financing, governance, public policy analysis, fiscal relations, and public financial management.
Mr. Odey joined the Federal Service from the Service of Cross River State Government in April 1998, and steadily climbed the ranks from Principal Admin Officer to the position of Director in the Federal Service. He has over 35 years of public sector experience. A significant portion of his career after attaining the rank of Assistant Director was spent at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, USA.
Mr. Fidel Odey has held various positions of responsibility and served in different capacities across several organizations. During his tenure at the World Bank Group, he served as an Advisor and Senior Advisor from 2013 to 2020. His roles involved representing Nigeria in the World Bank Group Constituency Office for Angola, Nigeria, and South Africa, and serving as a Senior Advisor to the World Bank Executive Director for the Constituency as well as the Executive Board of the World Bank Group. During the last three years, he served as Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning; and as the Director, International Economic Relations Department of the Ministry.
Throughout his professional journey, Fidel exhibited strong leadership skills and coordinated inter-ministerial and inter-governmental collaborations. He successfully spearheaded and garnered support for transformative initiatives, including recent accomplishments like initiating and managing institutional transformation studies including: the development of organizational transformation and strategic plan for the Ministry of Finance Incorporated; the strategic plan for the transformation of the Federal Treasury Academy under the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation; the development of a framework for a modernized integrated public financial management information system; and the audit of existing Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and Federal Government concession contracts all in 2023.
In 2021, in response to the sluggish performance of World Bank portfolios in Nigeria, the Minister of Finance appointed Mr Odey as Chairman of an inter-agency Taskforce on disbursements in development-financed projects in Nigeria. The objective of the Taskforce was to identify and address all bottlenecks to disbursements and implementation effectiveness challenges in donor-financed operations. The result of this work was a significant leap in projects disbursements and implementation activities.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, and as Director of International Economic Relations, Mr Odey facilitated the negotiations and securing of development financing from multilateral sources to finance the huge fiscal gaps created by the twin problems of the pandemic and shock from the collapse in global prices of crude.
While at the World Bank, Mr Odey played a pivotal role by leading African Chairs and mobilizing the Chairs of other developing countries at the World Bank to a strong negotiation of the historic IDA18 and IDA19 replenishments in 2017 and 2019 respectively. He has actively participated and represented Nigeria in several national, regional and international conferences and summits on international development and financing in many countries of the world.
Mr Odey’s primary objectives are to serve humanity with integrity and to support efforts and policies that promote poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods, growth and development. He places high value on recognizing and upholding human worth and dignity, and aims to enhance the quality of life for others.
Fidel holds an M.Sc degree in Poverty Reduction & Development Management, from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; an MPA and a B.Sc from the University of Calabar in Cross River State. He currently manages the Fiscal Governance & Institutions Project (FGIP) – a World Bank supported fiscal reform operation at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja.