Nafeesat Rabiu-Adebayo · PhD · PMP · PMI-ACP · AWS Cloud Practitioner
I work at the intersection of agriculture, technology, and institutional strategy, helping organizations close the gap between what food systems promise and what they actually deliver. From the field to the boardroom, I translate between those who hold power and those who need it.
Let's TalkAbout
Between the engineer and the farmer. Between the donor and the beneficiary. Between the data and the human being behind it. Between the ancient manuscript and the modern reader.
My work is translation. Not the linguistic kind, but the deeper kind, where expertise becomes accessible, strategy becomes action, and the people most affected by a system finally have someone in the room who speaks both languages fluently.
I started in the fields of Kwara State, Nigeria, training smallholder farmers through agricultural extension work. I moved through Presidential logistics operations, into agritech product development with OCP Africa and IBM, and then into doctoral research at the University of East Anglia, where I discovered something most trade economists had missed: that international agricultural aid can simultaneously increase trade costs while improving export performance.
I hold four degrees spanning agriculture, global affairs, and development economics, formed across Nigeria, the United States, and the United Kingdom. I carry PMP, PMI-ACP, and AWS Cloud Practitioner certifications. And I write with the kind of clarity that makes complex systems make sense to the people who fund them, build them, and depend on them.
"The gap between institutional power and human need is never an accident. It is a failure of translation."
Nafeesat Rabiu-Adebayo
What I Do
Every service draws on direct experience across three continents, combining deep subject-matter knowledge with rigorous methodology and a commitment to honest analysis.
From training 500+ smallholder farmers in Nigeria, to building a digital agriculture platform with OCP Africa and IBM, to doctoral research on agricultural trade along the Lagos-Kano-Jibiya corridor, my understanding of food systems spans the soil, the supply chain, and the policy table. I work with organizations building, funding, or evaluating agricultural programs and technologies, bringing a perspective grounded in what actually happens on the ground.
End-to-end ownership of programs from design through delivery and evaluation. Strategic planning, operating model design, risk management, stakeholder coordination, Theory of Change development, and the kind of honest analysis that actually reshapes decisions. Built for complex, multi-stakeholder environments where ambiguity is the norm and meticulous execution is the difference.
Original research using mixed methods, econometric modeling, and qualitative fieldwork. Built for donors, governments, and foundations who need independent thinking, not recycled literature. Findings translated into clear narratives that move people to act, not just to read.
Translating institutional needs into digital products that work for end users. From stakeholder research and design thinking to agile product development, prototype testing, and platform launch. For organizations building technology that must serve people who were never in the room when it was designed.
AI-powered video production, technical writing, policy briefs, and educational content for organizations that need their work to reach the people who matter. I turn complex research and programming into content that earns its audience, from donor communications to farmer-facing media to public education platforms.
The Work
Product Ownership · AgriTech
I progressed from Business Analyst to Product Owner on an end-to-end digital agriculture platform built with IBM for OCP Africa. I conducted stakeholder interviews across the full value chain, participated in design thinking workshops, guided prototype development through daily agile ceremonies with the technical team, and presented the working product to senior government executives. The platform spanned five domains: farm inputs, market access, financial services, agronomic advice, and farm management.
Business Analysis · Input Subsidy
I supported OCP Africa's Agribooster initiative, which bundled seeds, fertilizers, and insecticides into single subsidized packages for smallholder farmers, delivered through one-stop shops staffed with extension agents across northern Nigeria. I handled the corporate side while field analysts worked directly with farmers, and travelled across the region leading stakeholder engagement with state ministries, cooperatives, and input suppliers.
Operations · National Program
I supervised a team of 10 managing the nationwide transport of urea fertilizer from production sites in Port Harcourt to blending plants across northern Nigeria. I worked with engineers to install GPS tracking routes and configure security-sensitive zone alerts, and managed a real-time control room monitoring daily truck movements and escalating incident reports, collaborating directly with security agencies and government parastatals under sustained political and logistical pressure.
PhD Research · University of East Anglia · 2025
My doctoral research named and evidenced a paradox at the heart of global aid policy. I independently evaluated a $16.6 million bilateral trade initiative, building an original dataset from scratch, combining a process evaluation grounded in Theory of Change with econometric modeling, trade cost analysis, and export performance analysis. Qualitative fieldwork drew on 15 respondents across Nigeria. The research revealed that aid simultaneously increases trade costs and improves export performance, with direct implications for how billions in development finance are structured and deployed.
Insights
Research, writing, and public conversations at the intersection of systems, people, and the distance between them.
YouTube · Global Platform
A global public education platform with 30,000+ views, translating economic systems and cultural patterns through AI-enabled production. Original content on the logic behind the world we live in. Watch on YouTube.
Book · Published 2026
A translated and annotated collection of over 300 classical Arabic aphorisms. Centuries of wisdom on character, knowledge, and governance made accessible to contemporary readers. Purchase on Amazon.
Essays · Medium
Eleven published essays on development, culture, economics, and the human systems that shape how we live. Writing that earns its reader's time by saying something true and saying it well. Read on Medium.
Recognition & Scholarship
Summer Fellow & Graduate Fellow
United Nations Association of the National Capital Area (UNA-NCA), Washington DC · 2021 – 2022
Studied UN power dynamics, funding structures, and political constraints shaping decision-making across peacekeeping, climate action, and sustainable development. Continued as a summer fellow conducting data analysis and producing reports.
Global SDG Advocate and Practitioner
Distinguished Speaker on SDG 1 & 11 for GBR, United Kingdom · 2023
Johannes M. Botes Capstone Achievement Award
Academic excellence in Capstone project, United States · 2022
Laurence Short Academic Award for International Students
United States · 2021 – 2022
Featherstone Foundation College Award
United States · 2021
Most Versatile Female, Faculty of Agriculture
University of Ilorin, Nigeria · Class of 2014
PhD Thesis · Published 2025
Rabiu-Adebayo, Nafeesat Adejoke (2025). The Aid for Trade Paradox: A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Trade Costs and Agricultural Export Performance in Nigeria. University of East Anglia. View at UEA Repository
Rabiu-Adebayo, N. A. (2023). Commissioned Book Review: Constantine Michalopoulos, Aid, Trade and Development: The Future of Globalization. Political Studies Review. Read the review.
Adefalu et al. (2018). Effects of Goat Theft on Women Farmers in Rural Communities of Kwara State, Nigeria. Bangladesh Journal of Extension Education, 30(1), 17–26.
Adefalu et al. (2016). Assessment of UNICEF programs in rural communities of Kwara State. Annals of Child and Youth Studies, 7(2), 1–16.
University of East Anglia, UK · June 2023
Panelist, Work in Progress: Promoting Postgraduate Research in the Social Sciences.
University of Manchester, UK · January 2023
Panelist, Politics of Development Studies Conference: Emerging Research on The Politics of Aid and Development Cooperation.
University of Baltimore, USA · May 2022
Virtual Conference, A New Outlook to the Atrocities: Comfort Women and What Remains.
Utrecht University Netherlands Centre for Global Challenges · June 2020
Panelist, COVID-19 Webinar: Opportunity or Risk for a Sustainability Transition of Our Economies?
University of Ilorin, Nigeria · June 2016
Panelist, 13th National Research Conference and Network Meeting of CYIAP.
PMP · PMI-ACP
Project Management Institute
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Amazon Web Services
Generative AI for Project Managers · AI-Powered Workflow Automation
Project Management Institute
Strategic Management: Business Strategy and Connected Strategy
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania · 2023
Unlocking Investment and Finance in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies
The World Bank Group · 2022
e-Learning on Digital Agriculture
The World Bank Group · 2022
Macroeconomics of Climate Change: Science, Economics, and Policies
International Monetary Fund · 2022
Foundational Primer on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
UN System Staff College · 2021
Get In Touch
Whether you need a rigorous evaluation, a technology strategy, agricultural content that moves people, or someone who understands both the soil and the spreadsheet, this is the conversation to start.
Henderson, Nevada · Available for Local and International Projects