Profile

Ishmael is an Energy Economist with more than 10 experience that spans public service, civil society, private sector and academia. He is the Regulatory and Expert of USAID's West Africa Energy Program, Ghana. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Economic Affairs. He worked as the Head of Policy Unit, at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, where he coordinated research and advocacy on accountant ability and transparency in sustainable energy management and petroleum revenue management.

Ishmael served as Technical Advisor on Energy and Petroleum Policies to Ghana's Minister for Planning for 2 years. In this role, he led the team that developed the energy and petroleum sections of the Coordinated Programme for Economic and Social Development Policies (Ghana's current national vision-2017 to 2024). He was part of the Infrastructure sub-Technical Team that developed the energy demand scenarios for the Ghana Integrated Bauxite Development Authority (GIBADA) in 2018. Ishmael was the first Coordinator of Local Content at the Ghana Energy Commission where he initiated an industry wide baseline study before the full implementation of the Local Content Regulations. Related to this role, he served on the technical Committee that reviewed Ghana's Energy Policy, the Committee that drafted the 2020 Energy Outlook and the Strategic National Energy Plan and was part of the technical committee working on the Energy Sector Recovery Program.

Ishmael was awarded the Rising Star Award, at the 2017 Ghana Energy Awards. In addition, he was selected for 2018 Australian Awards Africa, for Energy and Mineral Economics. He is a recipient of the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards (Outstanding Reviewer-International of Energy Sector Management).

He has a keen interest in energy research and serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Institute for Oil and Gas Studies, University of Cape Coast and the Department of Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and GIMPA. He has provided research consultancies for the United Nations University, the African Development Bank, IHS Markit, GOGIG/OPM, Ghana's National Accreditation Board, the Natural Resource Governance Institute, SNV Ghana and SEND Ghana among others. He has published about 40 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals in the Energy Research and Social Science Journal, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Energy Efficiency Journal, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, the Extractive and Society Journal, OGEL, OPEC Energy Review, International Journal of Energy Sector Management among others. Ishmael holds in Energy Economics and Policy from the University of Portsmouth, UK and Msc Energy Economics and Policy, UK. He had his undergraduate studies at the University of Professional Studies, Accra Ghana.