Meet Foluso Phillips, the Economist Who Built a Consulting Institution and Never Stopped Believing in People

Meet Foluso Phillips, the economist who built a consulting institution and never stopped believing in people

At 67, Foluso Phillips is not slowing down. If anything, he sounds clearer, calmer and more convinced than ever that people, not policy slogans, are the real engine of economic growth.

As he marks his 67th birthday, the industrial economist and management consultant offers a living case study of how long-term thinking, professional rigour and leadership can shape institutions and influence an economy

His story is shaped by discipline, curiosity and a stubborn belief that Nigeria could do things properly, even when the odds looked stacked against it.

Phillips is a chartered management accountant of the United Kingdom, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and a trained industrial economist. His professional grounding was forged early, with six years at Coopers & Lybrand International in the UK, now Pricewaterhousecoopers, where he worked on international assignments across sectors and borders.

By the early 1990s, he had returned home, taking up the role of group general manager, finance at the SCoA Group. In 1992, he made the leap that would define his career. He set up Phillips Consulting Limited.

What followed was not overnight success, but steady, deliberate growth. Over more than two decades, Phillips steered the firm into a leadership position in strategy, human capital development, performance management and recruitment. Long before it became fashionable, he championed total quality management in Nigeria’s business community, pushing companies to think beyond shortcuts and focus on systems, people and long-term value.

Phillips Consulting also made history as one of the first Nigerian firms to establish operations in South Africa after the country’s 1994 democratic transition. That move positioned the firm at the centre of growing economic and professional ties between both countries, a space Phillips would later help shape more formally as chairman of the Nigeria South Africa Chamber of Commerce.

Along the way, his influence stretched well beyond his own company. He served as chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, sat on the boards of companies, charities and NGOs, and advised government agencies, banks, manufacturers and international organisations across West, East and Southern Africa.

Those who have worked with him describe a consultant who listens first, speaks plainly and insists on rigour without arrogance. Several sectors of the Nigerian economy, and many of its corporate leaders, have benefited from his work in organisation development, finance, governance and reputation management.

In 2018, Phillips took another deliberate step. He handed over the day-to-day running of his firm to a new managing director, Robert Taiwo, signalling his intention to focus on mentoring, institutional development and executive capacity building. It was, he said, proof that his long-held vision of building a sustainable institution was becoming real.

“I enjoyed my early years of Phillips Consulting the most,” he once reflected. “When you wake up early without the need of an alarm clock, you are just so driven. Passion makes you ignore the challenges and fuels you more.”

That emphasis on passion, choice and adaptability runs through his public commentary. He is blunt about outdated ideas of success and career paths, especially when they are imposed on young people.

“There are no rules about success,” Phillips has said. “Parents today are sometimes the worst people to advise you. They do not understand that opportunities are different now and the nature of work has changed.”

In recent years, he has been increasingly vocal about Nigeria’s youth bulge, the risks of unemployment and the urgent need to align education with modern skills. Under his leadership, Phillips Consulting partnered with government initiatives to deliver free online IT training worth millions of naira to hundreds of young Nigerians, an effort aimed at employability rather than rhetoric.

He has also been clear-eyed about Nigeria’s place in global trade. “It is not about government making money,” he argued at a chamber event in Lagos. “It is for our people to trade their skills and capabilities and be paid handsomely for the global value they offer.”