Lolade Abiola

Lolade’s experience spans across the aviation and energy sectors, holding senior managerial and project management positions within public and private sector institutions in Nigeria. While working as a technical advisor to the Vice President of Nigeria, she was instrumental in advising, drafting and implementing key regulation and programs to support the growth of the then nascent renewable energy sector. She worked as a strategic stakeholder with key development partners such as the World Bank, GIZ, AFDB and Department for Infrastructure Development (DFID).

She then led the mini-grid component of the Nigerian Off-Grid Electrification Project in partnership with the World Bank, which focused on Mini-grid development, Stand-alone solar systems and the provision of decentralized power solutions to economic clusters and households across Nigeria, without access to electricity. Prior to working in the Federal Government, Lolade worked with the Lagos State Electricity Board as Project Lead for the Lagos Solar Project, which was co-funded by DFID and Lagos State Government. The project provided 5MW of embedded solar power to 172 schools and 33 primary healthcare facilities located in the rural and riverine areas of Lagos State.

Lolade is a certified Solar trainer with the Renewables Academy AG (RENAC) Berlin and is also a qualified helicopter pilot. She holds an M.Sc. in Air Transport Management from the School of Aeronautics at Cranfield University, UK and also holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from King's College London.