Sope Willams Elegbe
Sope Willams Elegbe (born 9 August 1975) is a Nigerian professor of Law, public procurement scholar and anti-corruption champion. An advocate and speaker for Open Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption, WTO Law, Development Law. Sope is a consultant for different governments, the World Bank and is currently on the disciplinary committee on the International Bar Association in charge of exclusion and debarment Life. She was born in Geneva, to Chief and Mrs F.O Williams. She attended Geneva English School and later Home Science Primary School, Ikoyi, for her early education. She went on to Queen’s  College, Yaba, University of Lagos. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1999 after which she went to the London School of Economics where she obtained a distinction in LLM. Career. Sope Willams Elegbe started her career at the University of Stirling, Scotland, as a lecturer in business law in 2000. In 2003, moved to the University of Nottingham and joined their School of Law .In 2008 she was co-opted to work on a project on the World Bank’s expert group that helped the Bank reform its procurement process which lasted till 2011. She obtained a PhD  in public procurement and anti-corruption law in 2012. Sope was the Head of Research at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Lagos from 2014 till 2016. In 2016, she moved to South Africa and was appointed a professor of law at Stellenbosch University, South Africa in 2017, where she is the Head of the department of Mercantile law, and the Deputy Director of the African Procurement Law Unit. Life and work. Her research work is the area of public procurement, anti-corruption, digitalization of the public sector and sustainable development law, with a focus on human rights and sustainable public  procurement and the impact of corruption on sustainable procurement. On February 15, 2016, Nigerian Lawmakers in the House of Assembly pointed out to members of the Bureau of Public Procurement of the need for the Public Procurement Act of 2007 reformation. They stressed that Nigeria has been defrauded because of the loopholes in the act and the failure of the agencies to enforce the law. Sope Williams-Elegbe, who is Public Procurement expert said that the only solution was to engage legislative, institutional and organisational changes in public procurement reforms. Sope is the Vice-Chair of the Debarment and Exclusion  sub-committee of the International Bar Association and a member of Transparency International’s Working Group on Debarment and Exclusion. Fellow at the Public Procurement Research Group, University of Nottingham in 2020 an advisor international institutions and government bodies on procurement and anti-corruption matters who trains the public and the private sector in ethics and anti-corruption law. She co-run the LLM and PG Diploma in Public Procurement Policy and Regulation in Stellenbosch University. In 2019, the South African National Research Foundation nominated her to be an “Internationally recognised researcher” The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime  (UNODC) appointed her as an “anti-corruption champion” the same year. She has published work on Public Procurement, Open Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption, WTO Law and Development Law.