Dr. Zainab Usman

Director, Africa Program CEIP

Zainab Usman is the founding director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. Her enduring area of expertise is identifying the policies and institutions to enable low and middle-income economies to harness their natural resources to achieve sustainable economic development. Prior to Carnegie, Usman was at the World Bank as a public sector specialist where she worked on social sustainability, energy policy reforms, natural resources management, and digital technologies. She has worked on these issues in Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Serbia, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan. 

Usman’s research has been published on various academic, policy, and media platforms. She is author of the book Economic Diversification in Nigeria: the Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy, which was selected as one of the Best Books of 2022 on economics by the Financial Times. She is also co-editor of the book, The Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the Potential of Digital Technologies for All. Usman contributed to the World Bank’s flagship reports on Rethinking Power Sector Reforms in Developing Countries as well as Africa’s Resource Future: Harnessing Natural Resources for Economic Transformation during the Low-Carbon Transition. Usman’s other analytical pieces have been published with the journal of African Affairs, the World Bank’s Policy Research and Working Paper Series, and as book chapters in edited volumes with Oxford University Press and James Currey. Her work has appeared in Al-Jazeera English, BBC, Bloomberg News, the Economist, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Project Syndicate and The Washington Post. Usman obtained her doctorate (DPhil) from the University of Oxford.

Usman obtained her doctorate (DPhil) from the University of Oxford.