Dr. Amara Okafor
Researcher · Data Scientist · Lecturer · Lagos / Abuja / Remote Research Collaborations
Profile
Amara Okafor studies the relationship between movement, infrastructure and opportunity in rapidly changing cities. Her work combines quantitative analysis of mobility and infrastructure data with lived-experience research — interviews, travel diaries and field observation — to understand why two journeys of equal distance can produce very different experiences of access. She lectures on urban data science and spatial analysis, and collaborates with transport authorities, civic-technology groups and fellow researchers across Lagos, Abuja and beyond.
Education
PhD, Urban Data Science — University of Lagos
MSc, Geography & Spatial Analysis — University of Ibadan
BSc, Statistics — University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Selected Projects
Lagos Mobility Observatory
An ongoing, standing collaboration that continuously collects travel-diary and field-timed data across Lagos neighbourhoods, feeding several of the studies in this archive.
Opportunity Atlas
A project building a mobility-based alternative to income-only maps of urban opportunity, combining household survey and access observation data.
Waiting Time Study
A completed two-phase project examining how the physical setting and predictability of waiting shape a journey's perceived cost.
Transit Access Lab
A comparative lab studying which infrastructure decisions create invisible access barriers across three differently structured cities.
Neighbourhood Data Initiative
A community-linked project extending the central research question into fast-growing peri-urban districts, where formal transport data is thinnest.
Three-City Access Comparison
An earlier, now-archived comparative project that laid the groundwork for the Transit Access Lab, matching comparable journeys across three cities.
Publications
Measuring the Invisible Journey
Journal of Urban Data Science · A. Okafor, T. Balogun
Mobility Beyond Distance
African Journal of Spatial Studies · A. Okafor
Waiting as Infrastructure
Transport & Society · A. Okafor, F. Yusuf
Mapping Opportunity
Urban Systems Review · A. Okafor, C. Nwosu, T. Balogun
Reading the Route: A Method for Everyday Journeys
Methods in Urban Research · A. Okafor
The Cost of Waiting
Journal of Transport Geography · A. Okafor, F. Yusuf
Three Cities, One Question
Comparative Urban Studies · A. Okafor, C. Nwosu
Access Is Not a Line on a Map
Data & Society Working Papers · A. Okafor
The Shape of a Commute (Preprint)
Spatial Behaviour Quarterly · A. Okafor
Teaching
Lecturer, Urban Data Science — University of Lagos
Teaching Fellow, Spatial Analysis — University of Ibadan
Conferences
Measuring the Invisible Journey
African Urban Data Summit, Nairobi, Kenya (in person)
Mobility Beyond Distance
Transport Geography Conference, Accra, Ghana (in person)
Reading the Route: Coding the Everyday Journey
International Conference on Spatial Analysis, Remote
Mapping Opportunity, Not Just Income
Data for Development Forum, Abuja, Nigeria (in person)
Mapping Opportunity
Urban Systems Symposium, Lagos, Nigeria (in person)
Designing a Three-City Comparison
Comparative Cities Workshop, Remote
What a Map Fails to Show
Civic Technology Summit, Lagos, Nigeria (in person)
The Cost of Waiting
Transport & Society Annual Meeting, Cape Town, South Africa (in person)
Three Cities, One Question
Mobility and Inequality Roundtable, Remote
The Shape of a Commute
Spatial Behaviour Conference, Kigali, Rwanda (in person)
Awards
Early Career Research Award — African Urban Data Summit
Best Methods Paper — Methods in Urban Research
Doctoral Fellowship — Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority
Memberships
African Association of Urban Researchers
Transport & Society Network
Data & Society Research Collective