Uyoyo Edosio is a Senior Innovation expert at the African Development Bank. Where she manages a multi-million-dollar pan-African investment portfolio with a focus on education, innovation and youth employment. Uyoyo’s over nine years’ experience is a unique blend of “big four”management consulting and international development financing in Europe, Asia and Africa.
As an innovation expert with a solid understanding of investment and development project management, Uyoyo leads many outstanding interventions including driving the African Development Bank’s bespoke Coding for Employment Project which is as a primary vehicle to prepare African youth for the fourth industrial revolution and to be competitively positioned in the labour market. In one year, the program has reached 8,000 people, in 45 countries and is influencing nation-wide digital strategies in 7 countries and regions (including economic bodies like the ECOWAS ). She is also championing the first-of-its-kind AfDB led public-private academic incubation model, which is reimagining the role of higher education as a centre of entrepreneurship excellence.
Owing to her passion and commitment to youth empowerment and specifically being a youth under 30, she co-founded Meet-A-Need-Today foundation, aimed at providing a platform to guide young Africans towards achieving success in their chosen fields of excellence through mentorship, scholarships and various philanthropic activities. She has served on the Advisory board of notable organizations including MasterCard Secondary Education Advisory council, Orange Fab-Lab and Junior Achievement Africa.
Uyoyo is a seasoned researcher and has been a contributing author for several publications including the 2020 Africa Economic Outlook report, 2019 Creating Decent Job, 2019 AU-EU Digital Task Force report. Her leading Research on “Big Data analytics and e-commerce” has been referenced over 6000 times in various journals and textbooks. Uyoyo is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) trained Innovation Expert, she also holds a Master’s Degree in Information Technology and Management, a Postgraduate degree in Investment Appraisal and Development Project Management and Bachelors in Computer Science.
In her words “I think of myself as a complex problem solver who is currently harnessing her depth of experience and diverse skills to support emerging African countries develop relevant institutions, tackle unemployment and build competitive skills for the labour market.”