Maryam Lawal

Maryam Lawal

Digital Development Global Practice, World Bank

Maryam works with the World Bank’s Digital Development Global Practice, based in Washington D.C. She is an analytically minded young professional with experience and interest in the link between Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and socioeconomic development, with a particular focus on digital capabilities and digital infrastructure. She works on country and sectoral diagnostic assessments that underscore the design and implementation of key policy and programmatic activities as part of ongoing Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) Transformation agenda. She also provides technical and analytical expertise within the space of digital capabilities. Prior to this, Maryam worked at the GSMA in London where she led a work stream working with the top 20 global mobile network operators (MNOs) to conduct a landscape assessment, which contributed to increasing global data roaming from 43% to 57% in one year. Similarly, her previous role with Nigeria’s Ministry of Environment focused on formulation and implementation of key policy priorities for achieving Nigeria’s SDG targets. In this role, she worked closely with the current United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary General who was serving as the Federal Minister of Environment. Maryam also served as a Policy Advisor for the Executive Governor of Bauchi State in Nigeria, where she worked on fiscal and tax policy reforms for improving access to digital infrastructure and private sector driven technology investments as well as and policy/regulatory models that defragment markets and leverage technology to disrupt inefficient business models. She was Interim Lead/CEO of an international non-profit and provided voluntary support to numerous Non-Governmental Organisations advocating for women and youth empowerment. Maryam’s academic achievements include a PhD. in Development Planning from University College London (UCL), MSc in Management, Information Systems and Digital Innovation from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and BSc Information Systems from the University of Hertfordshire.