Ayo is CEO of Economic Associates (EA) where he provides strategic direction for ongoing research and consulting on the outlook of the Nigerian economy, focusing on global, national, regional, state, and sector issues. Ayo is also Vice-Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatization (TC-NCP), where he highlights the links between privatization programmes and the macroeconomy, a Member of Nigeria Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council, where he shapes efforts to ensure Nigeria’s industrial advancement. He was a Member of Board of Economic Advisers in the Office of the Economic Adviser to the President, where he contributed to the conception of economic policy ideas for the country, he was a member of Presidential Technical Advisory Committee on Implementation of New National Minimum Wage, and was a Member of the defunct National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC), where he conducted periodic reality checks on macroeconomic, fiscal and monetary policies.

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Before becoming CEO of EA in 2004, Ayo worked as Chief Economist at ThisDay Newspaper (2001-2004), Faculty Member at Lagos Business School (1995-2001), Head of Research at Lagos Chamber of Commerce (1993-1995), and Company Economist at UAC of Nigeria (1992-1993).

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Ayo has served as Consultant to many blue-chip companies, a host of federal ministries, departments and agencies, numerous State Governments, DfID, USAID, UNIDO, World Bank, and was a Visiting Scholar to the IMF Research Department in Washington DC and he has received grants from Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, and chaired the steering committee of Money, Macroeconomic and Finance Research Group of Money Market Association of Nigeria. He is a Council Member and Chair of Economic and Statistics Committee of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and a Non-Executive Director of Greenwich Trust Group.

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Ayo earned B.Sc. in Economics from University of Ibadan with Sir James Robertson Prize and Medal, UAC Prize in Economics, and Economics Departmental Prize as the all-round best economics graduate in 1988, M.Sc. Economics from Ibadan in 1990, M. Phil. Economics of Developing Countries as a Cambridge-DfID Scholar at University of Cambridge in 1992, and Ph.D. in Applied Econometrics and Monetary Economics from University of Durham in 2003. He is an Alumnus of Lagos Business School (AMP 5) and Henley Business School (BDP) Executive Programmes.