Zainab Usman
Zainab Usman is a Senior Research Scholar and Managing Director for International Programs at the Energy Opportunity Lab at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. She leads the Center’s work on energy for development in emerging markets, with a focus on strengthening the links between energy systems, economic transformation, and sustainability. Her enduring area of expertise is the political economy of natural resources, particularly the policies and institutions that enable resource-rich emerging markets to harness hydrocarbons, minerals, and metals for sustainable economic development.
Previously, Usman was the founding director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. From 2021 to 2025, she built the program into a globally recognized platform for policy-relevant research and high-level convening, raising millions of dollars in philanthropic support, leading a multidisciplinary team, and producing research that shaped international debates on energy, trade, and economic development. She was previously a public sector specialist at the World Bank, where she worked on energy policy reforms, social sustainability, natural resource governance, and digital technologies. She has advised governments and development partners in Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Serbia, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan.
Usman’s research has been published widely. 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 report on Rethinking Power Sector Reforms in Developing Countries. Usman’s other analytical pieces have been published in 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, The Economist, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Project Syndicate, and The Washington Post, among others.
Born in Nigeria, Usman holds a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford, an MSc from the University of Birmingham, and a BSc from Ahmadu Bello University.