Lai Yahaya advises governments in sub-Saharan Africa on energy sector reform, natural resource management and the public, private partnerships.

Yahaya was most recently Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria, with responsibility for Policy and Strategy and Team Leader of the Senior Advisors Group of the US Government Power Africa initiative.

Before this, Yahaya was Team Leader of the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform (FOSTER), a donor-funded initiative designed to support the restructuring of the oil and gas sector and to increase transparency and accountability in oil sector governance in Nigeria.

Yahaya qualified as an attorney with the New York law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and started his career at the United Nations Development Programme in New York. He received his BA (Hons) and MA from Balliol College, Oxford University, has an MSc in Business Economics and is a qualified Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. Yahaya is a Yale World Fellow, a Fellow and board member of the Desmond Tutu African Leadership Institute and ONE Africa Policy Advisory Board.