Meet Wally Adeyemo, Kemi Badenoch who are two Nigerians currently heading top economic, trade portfolios in US, UK

Ibadan born Nigerian-American, Wally Adeyemo and British-Nigerian, Kemi Badenoch are both currently heading powerful economy and trade portfolios for their respective governments in the diaspora.

Adeyemo is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the United States, US.

He was born to Yoruba parents in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria and raised in Southern California, United States, US.

His father was a teacher and his mother was a nurse.

After graduating from Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California in 1999, he received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and a juris doctor degree from Yale Law School in 2009.

Adeyemo served as the director of African American outreach for the John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign in California and was based in the San Francisco office.

Prior to joining the Barrack Obama’s administration, Adeyemo worked as an editor at the Hamilton Project.

He then served as senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to Jack Lew in the United States Department of the Treasury.

Adeyemo later worked as a negotiator on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

He also served as the first chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Elizabeth Warren.

Adeyemo became US’ Deputy Secretary of the Treasury on March 26, 2021.

Discussing Kemi Badenoch, she is currently the Secretary of State for Business and Trade in the United Kingdom, UK.

She was born on January 2, 1980, in Wimbledon, London, UK.

Badenoch is one of three children born to middle class Yoruba parents from Nigeria.

Her father, Femi Adegoke, was a general practitioner and her mother, Feyi Adegoke, was a professor of physiology.

Badenoch spent parts of her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria and in the United States, where her mother lectured.

Although a British citizen and born in the UK, during her parliamentary maiden speech Badenoch stated that she was “to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant”.

She completed a Bachelor of Laws, LLB, degree in 2009 from Birkbeck, University of London.

Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005 at the age of 25. At the 2010 general election, she contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency against Labour’s Tessa Jowell and came third.

She became UK’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade on February 7, 2023.