DR O. S.YAYA, DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, THE WINNER OF 2021 PROFESSOR ADENIKE OSOFISAN SCIENCE FACULTY SCHOLAR AWARD

Dr OlaOluwa S. Yaya was born on 19 June 1977 in Ibadan to a Carpentry/Furniture worker, who retired from the Works and Maintenance Department, University of Ibadan. His mother was a petty trader. He is a native of Akusa-Agba, Oka-Akoko in Ondo State. Dr Yaya attended Methodist Primary School I, and Methodist Grammar School, Bodija, Ibadan. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in Mathematical Sciences (Statistics bias) from the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria, and an M.Sc. and PhD degree in Statistics, from the University of Ibadan. Dr Yaya is in both Economic and Financial Statistics, and Computational Statistics units, versatile in Time Series Econometrics, Data Science and Machine Learning tools to solve research problems.

Dr Yaya had his mandatory National Youth Service programme at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kano-Cowpea Station, Kano State between 2001 and 2002. He enrolled for his M.Sc. programme in 2003 while teaching in secondary schools. Dr Yaya has worked as a Data Manager in the United States President’s Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief (US-PEPFAR) project, College of Medicine, and HIV/AIDS Prevention programme as a Monitoring and Evaluation (M and E) Officer, in a USAID-funded project in Lagos. In 2009, he joined the Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan, as an Assistant Lecturer, and rose to the rank of Senior Lecturer in 2019. Dr Yaya has been saddled with various administrative responsibilities at the Department, Faculty and the University.

He is a recipient of the Postgraduate Doctoral Research Fellowship at the North-West University, South Africa in 2016. He won the maiden edition of the Professor Adenike Osofisan Distinguished Science Faculty Scholar Award in 2019. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Econometrics and Applied Research (CEAR), Ibadan. He is a research collaborator and associate lecturer at the Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL), University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. He has international research fellowships with the Navarra Centre for International Development, University of Navarra, Spain; University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan; Global Humanistic University, Curacao; and KMU Akademie, Austria. Dr Yaya is a regular Statistician Consultant to the Central Bank of Nigeria; the West Africa Institute for Finance and Economic Management, and the National Mathematical Centre.

Dr Yaya is a Fellow/Member of the Royal Statistical Society, London; International Statistical Institute, International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics, International Associations of Hydrological Sciences, Statistics and Probability African Society, Nigerian Statistical Association, and the Professional Statistician Society of Nigeria. He has published widely in both local and international journals. He is married to ADN (Mrs) E. Modupe OlaOluwa-Yaya, and they are both blessed with Godly children.