Charles Chinedu Okeahalam

Charles Chinedu Okeahalam (born 31 March 1963) is a Nigerian economist and businessman.^[1][2][3] Born in London, England, he holds dual Nigerian and British citizenship. Prior to co–founding the investment firm AGH Capital Group in 2002, he was a professor of banking and finance at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.^[4]

As a policy maker in a number of African countries, he has led various initiatives such as revision of prudential regulatory frameworks, deposit insurance schemes, capital market development and financing of transnational infrastructure networks.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Career

He began his career as an investment analyst in 1986. From 1988 to 1990 he was a research fellow in economics at the University of Kent in Canterbury where he worked on the development of econometric models to forecast the demand for the Channel Tunnel and other infrastructure. He has also served as an advisor to a number of central banks, government ministries, the World Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.^[5][11] From 1997 to 1998 he served as Financial Institutions Advisor to the Bank of Namibia, concurrently serving as a professor of banking and finance at the University of Namibia. In 1998 he wrote a report that evaluated the bank and non-bank prudential regulatory framework of Namibia, which led to the establishment of the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority^[6] in 2001. In South Africa, he has served as key economic advisor to the ANC-led government on a number of initiatives. From 1999 to 2002 he served as lead advisor to the Reserve Bank of South Africa for the design and development of the South Africa deposit insurance scheme. In 2000 he served as the advisor to the Competition Commission on the attempted takeover of Standard Bank by Nedbank. He is an early proponent of the view that the most important economic variable for growth and governance in Africa is the supply of basic infrastructure.

Academic Contributions

Over the last two decades, he has made several contributions to the study of banking and finance, many of which were the first of their kind in Africa, in three areas:

• Application of econometric methods to industrial organisation in financial institutions and financial systems.^[12][13][14]
• Tests of market efficiency, integration and the role of institutions and governance.^[15][16][17]
• Financial sector regulation and policy.^[18][19][20]

Awards

In recognition of this work, he has received a number of awards such as a Bank of England Houblon-Norman Senior Fellowship and a D.Sc (Higher Doctorate) in Financial Economics from the University of Exeter.^[4]

Commercial Interests and Public Service

He has served as the chairman or a director of several commercial and public sector institutions. He has also served as a member of the Governing Council of the United Nations Institute for Development Economics and Policy in Senegal and the University of Cape Town.^{[7][8][9][10][21][22]} In February 2016, he was appointed chairman of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) Plc. ^[23]

References