Profile

Dr. Akin-Olusoji Akinyele is an accomplished economist, policy strategist and government affairs leader with over 20 years of experience driving large-scale reforms and institution-building across Sub-Saharan Africa. He is known for operating at the nexus of economic development, education systems transformation, capital markets and business climate reform — serving as a bridge between governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society.

He most recently served as Group Managing Director of NewGlobe Nigeria, where he worked with state governments to deliver improved learning outcomes to approximately 1.7 million children across six states by implementing system-wide education technology and instructional innovations to build globally competitive public schools. This work has been recognised by the Education World Forum, the World Bank and The Nigeria Governors’ Forum, among others.

Earlier, he served as Adviser to Nigeria’s Vice President, H.E. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, contributing to national and sub-national business climate reforms through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Secretariat. His work contributed significantly to Nigeria’s 39-place rise in the World Bank Doing Business rankings — the country’s highest leap on record. He also held senior roles in capital markets and regulatory affairs as Head of Government Relations at the Nigerian Stock Exchange and led women’s financial inclusion advocacy as Director of Africa Policy at Women’s World Banking – a New York-based global NGO.

Dr. Akinyele began his career in economic policy research. He once served as Senior Economist and Editorial Board Member at BusinessDay and led the policy research desk at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). He later established and managed the Nigeria office of a global research firm that supported an award-winning $80m private equity investment in a local fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company. He has consulted for UNDP, DFID, WEF, Africa CEO Forum, and others.

He is a Certified Independent Non-Executive Director (INED), Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, and Member of the Chartered Institute of Directors (Nigeria). A recipient of the Doctor of Economics (Honoris Causa), he is an alumnus of the University of Lagos, the Lagos Business School, University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, and Harvard University.

A father of three daughters, he is passionate about transforming education, advancing public-private collaboration, and strengthening governance institutions to serve the public good.