The late Prof. Benno Ndulu was an esteemed Resource Person and founder member of the African Economic Research Consortium, (AERC).

At the AERC, Benno, as we fondly called him, was celebrated as our first African Executive Director. Prior to that, he was the first AERC Director of Research.

Over the last 3 decades, Benno served the AERC in various capacities: a member of the AERC Board, Chair of the AERC Programme Committee, founder member of the AERC African Central Bank Governors’ Forum, thought leader and paper presenter/discussant at AERC policy workshops. His commitment and dedication to the AERC and its mandate to build research capacity in Africa was admirable. He received an honorary doctorate from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague in 1997 in recognition of his contributions to Capacity Building and Research on Africa.

Benno started his career at the University of Dar es Salaam in the early 1980s following his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He taught economics and published widely on growth, adjustment, governance and trade. After AERC, he joined the World Bank as a Lead Economist. He served as the Governor at the Central Bank of Tanzania over the period 2008-2018. He was the Economic Advisor of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and a member of the new Presidential Economic Advisory Council of the Republic of South Africa. Benno was also a visiting Professor and the Senior Advisor for Digital Pathways at the Blavatnik School of Public Policy, University of Oxford.

He passed away on 22 February 2021 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania at the age of 71.