Abel B.S. Gaiya is an interdisciplinary researcher and policy professional based in Abuja, Nigeria, whose work spans development economics, political economy, energy transition governance, history of African economic thought, and industrial policy. He holds an MSc in Development Economics from SOAS, University of London, and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Management from Monash University and Rhodes University, South Africa.
With nearly a decade of experience in Africa's clean technology and energy access space, Abel currently serves as Chief Research Officer at the Clean Technology Hub (CTH) in Abuja, where he has led or supported over 33 projects across research, policy, advocacy, and capacity-building formats. His energy and fuels portfolio spans solar mini-grids, e-mobility, green hydrogen, clean cooking, and off-grid electrification policy, with project engagements funded by GIZ, USAID, ClimateWorks Foundation, the International Climate Initiative (IKI), UNICEF, the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), among others. He has contributed to national policy processes in Nigeria, including the validation of the National Hydrogen Policy, the National Net Billing Regulations, and the National Policy on Off-Grid Renewable Energy Equipment Waste Management.
Abel's research in development studies and business and economics engages questions of industrial policy, anti-corruption enforcement, political settlements, and structural transformation in Africa. His peer-reviewed publications appear in journals including the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, Advances in Politics and Economics, and Climate Prospects Journal. He also has two book-length working manuscripts on SSRN examining the developmental trajectories of West Africa and the history of international development assistance since 1500.
In the field of African history and area studies, Abel's scholarship offers a distinctive perspective on West Africa's long-run economic malformation, the history of abolitionism, nineteenth-century African economic thought, and the collapse of trans-Saharan trade networks. He has presented his historical and political economy research at institutions and conferences including Sciences Po Lille, the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Society, the University of Ghana, and the University of Manchester. His work in this area draws on a range of traditions — from institutional economics and Post-Keynesian analysis to political settlements theory and varieties of capitalism — to interrogate the structural conditions shaping African development.
Beyond research, Abel has contributed to African policy discourse through analytical articles published in The Republic and Developing Economics, and has led or supported the organization of high-level convenings including the Nigeria Climate Finance Summit (powered by the Africa Finance Corporation), the West African E-Mobility Conference (powered by the United Nations Environment Programme), and the Energy Transition Council's Energizing Finance Roundtable. He is a member of several professional networks, including the Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), the Africa Renewable Energy Alliance, and the Policy and Governance Cluster of the African Institute for Sustainable Energy and Systems Analysis (AISESA), and the Africa Economics and Finance Association (AFEA).
