Nwamaka Chidera Ogbonna is a DPhil candidate at Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford, where her research focuses broadly on industrialisation, innovation, and technology development in developing countries. Specifically, her research seeks to examine how local firms in Nigeria build technological learning capabilities and undertake innovative activities taking into consideration the country’s institutional framework, industrial policies, and its interaction with the global environment. This builds on her MPhil research which analysed the effectiveness of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) as tools of industrial policy in Africa.

Prior to Oxford, she worked at the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Nigeria, where she led the Monitoring and Evaluation of the $100 million Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship programme and produced the programme’s first impact report. She also worked with the partnerships team of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), New York, helping UNGC signatory companies to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She currently works at the Oxford Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD) where she is the Communications Officer and a researcher. 

Nwamaka served as the 2019/2020 President of the Oxford Africa Society where, among other accomplishments, she established the society’s inaugural Advisory Board. In 2017, Nwamaka was recognised by the British Council as one of the top 50 emerging global policy leaders. 

She holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford; a Master’s in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a first class in Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. She also completed an executive programme on Public Policy, Design Thinking and Leadership at the University of Cambridge.