Professor Chukwuma C. Soludo was born on July 28, 1960, in Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State. After finishing secondary school, he went on to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he earned a first-class degree in Economics. He also received his post-graduate and doctorate degrees in Economics from the same university, where he won the prize for the best graduating student on both occasions.
Professor Soludo completed four years of post-doctoral training at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC; the University of Cambridge, UK, as Smuts Research Fellow and Fellow of the Wolfson College; the UN Economic Commission for Africa as a Post-Doctoral Fellow; the University of Warwick as a Visiting Scholar; and the University of Oxford as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for African Economies (with funding by the Rhodes committee). He has also taken over a dozen specialized courses and has extensive research, teaching, and consulting experience in various areas of economics.
Since 1993, he has worked as a short and long-term consultant at the World Bank, as well as at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Abeba. He worked as a consultant for UNCTAD, the European Union (EU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN) in New York, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the African Development Bank (ADB), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the African Union (AU), the International Development Research Council (IDRC) in Canada, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), and the Economic Community of West African States
Professor Soludo has been a Senior Technical Advisor/Consultant and Visiting Scholar at the IMF since 1994, and he has also taught the IMF’s Financial Programming and Policy course to senior staff from West African and other developing countries. He has served on technical committees that drafted economic and trade policies for the Federal Government of Nigeria, as well as as the Executive Director of the African Institute for Applied Economics (AlAE).
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Professor Soludo joined the Federal Government of Nigeria in July 2003 as President Obasanjo’s Economic Adviser and Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission (NPC). During his ten months in office, he was the Chairman/Coordinator of the team that drafted Nigeria’s economic and social reform program (2003-2007), the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), and he also pioneered the collaborative planning framework in the Nigerian federation by initiating and assisting state governments in designing their State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (SEEDS) (SEEDS).
Since taking over as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in May 2004, Prof. Soludo has successfully refocused the Central Bank as an effective monetary authority and implemented a fundamental restructuring that has resulted in an unprecedented consolidation of the Nigerian banking system.
As a result, the Nigerian banking system is the fastest growing in Africa and one of the fastest-growing in the world. He has also advocated for the creation of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a continental, private-sector-led investment bank.
He is promoting the Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020), a blueprint for growing Nigeria’s financial system to become Africa’s financial hub and propel the Nigerian economy into the top 20 global economies by 2020. Professor Soludo has received numerous awards and recognitions for his achievements from civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private sector organizations, religious groups, the press, professional associations, student unions, and universities, among others.
The Financial Times of London referred to him as “Ita Great Reformer.” He was named ‘Global and African Central Bank Governor of the Year’ by various international media institutions, including The Banker Magazine published by the Financial Times of London, in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
He is currently a member of the UK-International DFID’s Advisory Group, as well as the World Bank’s Chief Economist Advisory Council and the UK Department for International Development’s International Advisory Group (DFID). He is also a member of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), a global network of over 200 leading economists, political scientists, and practitioners dedicated to assisting developing countries in exploring policy alternatives and increasing civic participation in economic policymaking.
He is a Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, Nigeria’s third-highest national honor (CFR). He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), the Nigerian Economic Society (NES), and the University of Calabar. He also holds a D.SC (Honoris Causa) from the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi.
Professor Soludo is married to Nonye and the couple has two children.
