Research
Fola's research focuses on banking regulation, financial and economic crime, and whistleblower protection in Africa, with a primary emphasis on Nigeria and comparative perspectives from England & Wales and Kenya. Her work examines how legal and regulatory institutions shape accountability, enforcement capacity, and economic governance in emerging economies, combining doctrinal analysis with institutional and policy-oriented approaches.
Her research programme is structured as a coherent trilogy. Her first monograph, Banking Regulation in Africa: The Case of Nigeria and Other Emerging Economies (Routledge, 2021), analyses the legal architecture of banking regulation in Nigeria and other emerging economies. Her second monograph, Illicit Enrichment and Unexplained Wealth in Africa (forthcoming, Routledge 2026), examines asset recovery and anti-corruption enforcement in Nigeria and Kenya through a governance lens. Her third monograph, on whistleblower protection (forthcoming 2027), focuses on the role of information and reporting regimes in strengthening financial crime enforcement.
She has published widely in leading commercial law journals, including the Journal of Business Law, and her work on whistleblower protection has been cited in UK parliamentary policy discussions. She is also an invited member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Economic Criminology.
She holds an LLB, LLM, and PhD from the University of Westminster and Brunel University, London, and is a Barrister, called to the Nigerian Bar.
Research Supervision:
Fola is an experienced external Ph.D. examiner, having examined in South Africa, Nigeria, as well as in England & Wales. She is happy to receive proposals from prospective doctoral students with an interest in banking and financial regulation as well as financial and economic crime.