Chukwuma Charles SOLUDO (Board Member, 2011- present)

Chukwuma Charles Soludo, Nigeria, was the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2004 to 2009. He also served as the Chief Economic Adviser to the President of Nigeria and was the CEO of the Nigerian National Planning Commission from 2003 to 2004. He was the Founding Chairman of the African Finance Corporation and has been a consultant to 18 international organisations including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), UNCTAD, the European Union, the African Union, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom,  the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada; the United Nations; the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

He was the founding Executive Director of the African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu, and has been serving as Chairman of its Board of Directors since 2008.

Mr. Soludo has had a distinguished career as an academic and has authored numerous books and articles. He was professor of Economics at the University of Nigeria; visiting professor at Swarthmore College, USA; Smuts research fellow at Cambridge University; visiting scholar at University of Warwick and Oxford University; visiting fellow at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; research fellow at UN-Economic Commission for Africa, Ethiopia; visiting scholar at IMF research department; among others.

He was appointed by the President of UN General Assembly to the United Nations Commission of Experts on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis during 2008 and 2009 chaired by Professor Joseph Stiglitz. He served as Alternate Governor at the IMF and World Bank’s Board of Governors during 2004 and 2009.

For his accomplishments in government, Mr. Soludo has earned scores of national and international awards, including being the triple winner of the African and Global Central Bank Governor of the year, 2005, 2006, and 2007 (by the FT-Banker; Euromoney, Annual Meetings Daily), and the Financial Times of London has described him as “a great reformer”. The Federal Government of Nigeria has conferred the third highest national honour (Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, CFR) on him in 2006. His Alma Mater, the University of Nigeria in 2004 honoured him with a special award as the “Most Distinguished Alumnus of the University”.

Mr. Soludo currently serves on the Chief Economist Advisory Council (CEAC) of the World Bank, Washington, DC. He is also aconsultant and strategic adviser to institutional investors in Africa; a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the Natural Resource Charter, Oxford; and member or Chairman of Boards of several companies.