Dr. Obadiah Mailafia

Dr. Mailafia is a Nigerian national. He graduated at the head of his class with a B.Sc. Social Sciences Honours degree (Politics, Economics and Sociology) at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria and did post-graduate studies in International Economics at IIAP (École Nationale d’Administration--IIAP) in Paris, France. He completed his doctorate degree at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where he was a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholar.

He worked for several years as a university academic, rising to the level of Associate Professor in London before joining the African Development Bank (ADB) Group; serving in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and in Tunis. He was a recipient of the Mamoun Beheiry Award for distinguished services to the ADB Group. He later returned to his home country where he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Central Bank with responsibility for monetary policy, statistics, economic analysis and relations with regional and international institutions. Dr. Mailafia was later appointed Senior Policy Advisor to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the rank of Minister of State. Until his current appointment as Chef de Cabinet of the ACP Group, he was the Founder/Chairman of the Centre for Policy and Economic Research (CEPER), a macroeconomics and public policy think tank based in Abuja, Nigeria. He has several publications to his name in economics, finance and public policy.

Widely regarded as one of the thought-leaders of the New Africa, Dr. Mailafia brings to the ACP the background of a seasoned economist, administrator and a respected international banker. In terms of extracurricular interests, Dr. Mailafia has been a popular newspaper columnist and current affairs commentator and enjoys classical music, literature, patristic theology, tennis, football, Egyptology and the study of ancient African traditions. He is married to Margaret, a systems analyst and entrepreneur, and they are blessed with children.