The Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium, Professor Njuguna Ndung'u paid a courtesy call to the Vice-Chancellor on 30th July 2021. Established in 1988, African Economic Research Consortium is a premier capacity-building institution in the advancement of research and training to inform economic policies in sub-Saharan Africa.
Prof. Njuguna S. Ndung'u is the Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium based in Kenya. Before joining AERC, he held the position of Kenya's Central Bank Governor, from 2007 until March 2015. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and master's and bachelor's degrees in economics from the University of Nairobi. Prior to his appointment as Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Prof. Ndung'u held positions at the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the University of Nairobi where he taught advanced economic theory and econometrics, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA). Prof. Ndung'u has extensive policy, research, and teaching expertise in macroeconomics, microeconomics, econometrics, and poverty reduction.
Established in 1988, the African Economic Research Consortium is a capacity building institution to inform economic policies in sub-Saharan Africa.
AERC has three primary components: research, training and policy outreach. The organization integrates economic policy research, postgraduate training and policy outreach within a network of researchers, universities and policy makers in Africa and worldwide.
The University of Nairobi is a founding member of the three AERC Collaborative Training Programmes namely:
- Collaborative PhD Programme (CPP) in Economics, along with targeted support for PhD thesis research. The collaboration features joint facility for electives, enforcement of standards through internationally recruited external examiners, a common curriculum and a joint development of teaching materials.
- Collaborative Master’s Programme in Economics (CMAP) for Anglophone Africa (except Nigeria )
- Collaborative Master of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) for Eastern, Central and South Africa
Since 2015, over 170 students from the University of Nairobi have been supported in the three programmes.
Institutional Grant Support
The Research Consortium offers 5 types of grants to Universities to facilitate programme implementation.
- Service Grants
- Operating Grants
- Thesis Research Grants
- Institutional Grants
- PhD Fellowship Grants
Since 2017, the University of Nairobi has been awarded over USD 1.6million to support the collaborative training programmes.