“Consuming Power”: The Socioeconomic Impact of Electricity in Colonial Nigeria, 1896-1960

Biographical Note

Damilola Adebayo, from Iwo, Nigeria, took his BA in History at the University of Ibadan where he was a Grace Leadership Foundation Scholar, and was General Secretary of the Union of Campus Journalists. He received his master’s degree after studying at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland as a Hans Wilsdorf Foundation Scholar. He was also president of the African students’ group. In this role, he led a team that, among others, coordinated the first ever student-organised panel on youth empowerment and economic development in Africa which attracted some very distinguished Africans working in International Geneva

In Autumn 2014, Damilola was part of a team that pioneered innovative agricultural solutions for empowering women living in slums in Nakuru, Kenya through his work with Just Innovate, an NGO based in Geneva. He later joined the team at Just Innovate on a voluntary basis to oversee a group of 45 students and young professionals working on solving a number of social innovation challenges across the world. In 2016, he was a staff of the International Labour Organisation’s Department of Communications; he was in the Archives section where he was assigned to work on Lusaka, Dar es Salaam and Cairo records. Prior to this position, he worked for the Government of Oyo State Nigeria, as a youth corps member. There, he coordinated educational and medical outreaches to 15 rural communities under the auspices of the Nigeria Christian Corpers Fellowship. Damilola has also won other prestigious awards and grants. Most recently, he was a recipient of a research grant from The History Project, a scheme managed by the Joint Centre for History and Economics at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge.As a Cambridge Africa Scholar, Damilola is investigating the influence of indigenous business associations on economic policy-making in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria.

Source and further information: U Cambridge, Link (28 May 2019)