Ibilola Amao

Ibilola Amao is a Nigerian and British engineer, principal consultant of Lonadek Services (United Kingdom and Nigeria) and consultant for the vision 2020 initiative. She received several awards such as most active women business enterprise IWEC 2016, Energy Institute Champion 2016, C3E international woman of distinction Award, Access Bank “W” 100, and the 2019 Forbes Africa rising star Award. She was a Vital Voices (VV) GROW fellow, a member of vv100 and a WEConnect international fellow. Ibilola was also the co-founder of the cedar STEM and entrepreneurship hub. As a STEM entrepreneur, she focuses on youth empowerment and increasing the participation of women in STEM professions dominated by men in Nigeria.

Early life and education

Ibilola is one of the six children born to a Nigerian highway engineer. She obtained her O levels from queens school, Ibadan, Nigeria and left for London where she acquired a first-class honors degree in civil and structural engineering from Queen Mary college, University of London. Afterwards, she got a PhD in computer-aided design and draughting from Bradford University, United Kingdom. After her PhD, she trained as a PPL engineer for three years.

Career Upon return to Nigeria from England, Ibilola worked with university of Lagos as an associate lecturer with professor Ibidapo Obe. Then, she proceeded to a one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program during which she started and founded Lonadek in 1991. After her NYSC, she worked with National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO) in 1992 where she trained the first 67 engineers recruited by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for NETCO. In 2023, Ibilola becomes a fellow of the Queen Mary University of London, the fellowship was in acknowledgement for her dedication to developing STEM talents and mentoring of women.