An Interview With Adeyemi Dipeolu, Aporde 2024 Lecturer

With Aporde 2024 having recently taken place, we are pleased to present a series of interviews with some of this year's lecturers and attendees.. These interviews are hosted and conducted by Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) Communications Officer Nondwe Majundana and feature a diverse range of specialists in the field of development economics.Adeyemi Dipeolu is an economist, diplomat, and public administrator. Until May 2023, he served as Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters in the Office of the Vice President Osinbajo of Nigeria. Prior to this, Dr Dipeolu was at the UN Economic Commission for Africa where he served as Coordinator of the Africa Trade Policy Centre, Chief of Staff and Director of the Capacity Development Division respectively. While at ECA he led work on Transformative Industrial Policy and on Conflict and Development in Africa. He was also Head of Secretariat of the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa and lead author of its Final Report. Before joining ECA, Dr Dipeolu was in the Nigerian Foreign Service where he rose to the rank of Ambassador and served in Caracas, Addis Ababa, Pretoria and Geneva respectively. He was also deployed from the Foreign Service as a Special Assistant, Economic Coordination and Policy in the Office of the Chief of Staff to President Obasanjo. Dr Dipeolu is a Fellow of the Nigerian Economic Society and studied at the Universities of Ife, Oxford, Cambridge and South Africa. He is a Special Adviser to the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (Addis Ababa), an Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance of the University of Cape Town, a Fellow of the Development Leadership Dialogue Institute of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, a Member of the AfCFTA Trade and Industrial Policy Advisory Council (Accra) and Member of the Board of the Centre for African Development and Investment (Abu Dhabi). Photo used courtesy of the Nelson Mandela School of Governance.