Onaolapo Soleye is a Nigerian scholar and former

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

during the military regime of General

Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 A ...

. He served for (20) twenty months as the minister of finance. He was also a former commissioner for Finance and Industry in

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to th ...

. He sits on the board of the Obasanjo Presidential Library. He was a former lecturer at the university of Ibadan, he was also the commissioner of industry in the western region before he was appointed as the minister of finance. Soleye preferred administrative controls on foreign exchange, he rejected proposals to drastically devalue naira. He also decided to print new notes in April 1984, to prevent the repratriation of Naira through smuggling.

Education

Dr Soleye attended

Baptist Boys' High School Baptist Boys’ High School is a secondary school in Abeokuta, Ogun State, south-west Nigeria. It had a student body of 1,100 students as of the 2011–12 academic year.The Trumpeter (2012) ‘Students in the boarding house’, The Trumpeter, Vo ...

Abeokuta Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; north of Lagos by railway, or by water. , Abeokuta and the surrounding a ...

, one of the earliest secondary school established in Nigeria. He trained as a Sociologist and studied at the

London School of Economics and Political Science The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

and

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

. Soleye's major policy actions during his tenure as Minister of Finance include: *Policies preventing drastic devaluation of the Naira *Refinancing of trade debt arrears insured by international organizations *Supported the rationalization and restriction of imports *Did not stop the trend of budget deficit financing *Creating of new Naira notes to halt currency smuggling

References

*"Obasanjo Farms Withdraws From Okitipupa Oil Palm Board", Daily Trust, January 21, 2002 Living people Finance ministers of Nigeria Yoruba politicians Academic staff of the University of Ibadan Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology Alumni of the London School of Economics Baptist Boys' High School alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{Nigeria-politician-stub