Nigerian Business and Civil-Society Leader Tapped to Head Afrobarometer’s Governing Board
Nigerian business and civil-society leader Amina Oyagbola will take the helm at Afrobarometer, succeeding co-founder E. Gyimah-Boadi as chair of the board of directors effective April 2025, the research organisation announced Friday.
Oyagbola is an independent director and business management consultant with more than 35 years of experience in legal practice and business management in corporate Nigeria, including as a former human resources and corporate services executive at MTN Nigeria. Her career spans human resources strategy and transformation, legal consulting, women’s empowerment, banking and finance, oil and gas, and telecommunications. She is the managing consultant at AKMS Consulting Ltd., a senior partner of Oyagbola Chambers, and a Chevening Scholar.
She is a passionate advocate for gender equality and the founder of Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), a not-for-profit gender-empowerment and strategic mentoring and leadership initiative.
“I am deeply honoured and excited to serve as Afrobarometer’s board chair. Afrobarometer has been a trailblazer in amplifying the voices of Africans through high-quality research and data, and I look forward to contributing to its continued growth and mission to make citizen voice a key pillar of African policy and decision making,” said Oyagbola, who joined the Afrobarometer board in 2019. “I am excited about expanding Afrobarometer’s impact and ensuring that our data continues to shape policies that truly reflect the priorities of African citizens.
“The world is changing rapidly – technology, youth engagement, economic transformation – and Afrobarometer is uniquely positioned to provide the insights needed to navigate these changes.”
Oyagbola takes over from Gyimah-Boadi, who co-founded Afrobarometer in 1999 and served as its chief executive from 2008 to 2021 and is term-limited after four years as board chair.
“It has been both a pleasure and an honour to work closely with Amina Oyagbola since she joined Afrobarometer’s board in 2019,” Gyimah-Boadi said. “She established her indispensability to the effective functioning of the board right from the beginning of her tenure, especially in the areas of board corporate governance and human resource development. I’m indeed happy to be handing over the AB board leadership to someone with the right blend of expertise, depth of passion for our mission, and breadth of strategic connections.”
Afrobarometer Chief Executive Officer Joseph Asunka highlighted Gyimah-Boadi’s quarter-century of unparalleled commitment to research excellence and democratic development and said the new board chair embodies the values of inclusion and progress that Afrobarometer seeks to promote across the continent.
“Gyimah’s vision and leadership have been the foundation of Afrobarometer’s successes,” Asunka said. “We are assured that Amina will bring her exceptional experience, expertise, and passion to lead us into an exciting new chapter.”
