Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka

Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka is the Senior Special Adviser on Industrialization to the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), coordinating the Bank’s industrial policy, Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, and the pharmaceutical sector. He is a member of the Advisory Council on Industrialization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and a recipient of the National Productivity Order of Merit.

He served 20 years at the United Nations, holding senior positions such as Director, Regional Office for Africa, and Chief Scientific Advisor, UN-HABITAT. From 2001 to 2006, he was a Professor at the United Nations University – Institute for New Technologies (UNU-INTECH), where he gained global recognition for his work on industrialization and innovation policy.

Professor Oyelaran-Oyeyinka has authored over 20 books, including Industrialization and Economic Diversification (2022) and Rich Country Poor People (2014). He holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ife, an M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and a D.Phil. in Development Economics from the University of Sussex. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering and the Nigerian Academy of Chemical Engineering.

‍