Professor Fred Olayele founded the Nigeria Clusters for Development (NCfD) in response to the need for an innovation-driven economic governance model in Nigeria.

The founding vision of NCfD was inspired by the lecture delivered by Professor Olayele to commemorate Nigeria’s 61^st Independence Anniversary on October 1, 2021 in Abuja — where he emphasized the urgent need to strengthen sub-national fiscal capacity and policy entrepreneurship.

During the lecture — hosted by The Platform Nigeria and Covenant Nation — Professor Olayele made a compelling case for rethinking Nigeria’s economic governance model to address macroeconomic shocks, perennial ethno-religious conflicts, policy somersaults, and inadequate economic management coordination which characterized the era, resulting in cascading structural economic crises that constrained Nigeria’s huge growth potential.

To restore the high-growth path and economic rejuvenation that characterized the preceding decade from 2003 to 2013, his lecture underscored the pros and cons of centralized redistribution mechanisms, as well as the importance of allowing economic incentives to drive gradual deconcentration. In his view, to unlock the key institutional ingredients that can foster sub-national economic competitiveness, federalism needs retooling — powered by the innovation economy.

At the end of his speech, Professor Olayele offered to help launch a pilot program that would serve as a policy laboratory to harness the possibilities across all six geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

After a series of iterations, NCfD was launched as a five-year pilot initiative aimed at mainstreaming policy entrepreneurship to foster social cohesion and shared prosperity across all 774 local government areas.

NCfD is a non-profit, non-partisan organization registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria. It’s mission is to advance governance innovation, policy entrepreneurship, and cluster-based development across Nigeria.