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Media Release

Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u, the Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), has been appointed to the position of Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury and Planning by H.E Dr William Ruto, the President of the Republic of Kenya.

“I received the excellent news that H.E President Dr William Ruto has appointed me to serve in his government with enthusiasm. The appointment sincerely humbled me, and I wish to take this early opportunity to accept the appointment. This is a great honour, and I wish to extend my gratitude to President Dr. William Samoei Ruto unreservedly. Through the appointment, the President has given me the honour and privilege to serve my beloved country again, this time as a Cabinet Secretary”, he said.

True to his professional training and lifelong academic endeavours in economic policy, planning, research, and the overall capacity-building space, he says he commits to selflessly serve in this Cabinet Secretary portfolio. His professional and career experience provides him with a good foundation, expertise, networks, and technical skills to meet the arduous task ahead. He says that he is also conscious of the prevailing local and international economic circumstances and commit to collaborating with the relevant state and non-state actors to steer the docket towards economic vibrancy as envisioned in the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.

Undoubtedly the appointment is a befitting tribute to his contribution to the continental economic policy body of knowledge through his role as the Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). To this end, he says he is indebted to the AERC Board of directors, the network, and the staff. 

In the meantime, the AERC Board has appointed Prof. Théophile Azomahou, AERC Director of Training, as Acting Executive Director as the Board embarks on a search process for the new Executive Director. Théophile Azomahou is a Professor of Economics. His research resonates around development economics at the frontier of evidence-based policy, quantitative empirics, and economic theory. 

Théophile Azomahou has a proven track record of publications in peer-reviewed journals and is a guest editor for several academic journals. Prior to joining AERC in January 2021, he was, Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University, UNU (2008-2018) in which capacity he led the UNU research group on `Economic Development, Innovation, Governance, and Institutions’; Professor of Development Economics at the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (2010-2020); Professor of Research at the National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS (2018-2020); Professor of Economics at the University Clermont Auvergne, CERDI (2015-2021), among other positions. He holds a Ph.D and a master’s degree in economics, both from the University of Strasbourg, France.       

Established in 1988, the AERC is a premier capacity-building institution in the advancement of research and training to inform economic policies in sub-Saharan Africa. The AERC’s mission rests on two premises: first, that development is more likely to occur where there is sustained sound management of the economy; second, that such management is more likely to happen where there is an active, well-informed cohort of locally based professional economists to conduct policy-relevant research.