News & Events

Dr . Chukwuka Onyekwena moderated the breakfast session organized by the Chattered Institute of Bankers in Nigeria -Centre for Financial Studies. The meeting provided a platform for stakeholders and experts to discuss issues around the Africa Free Continental Free Trade and Smart Trade and propose ideas for African Business in the Post-Covid era. The event held on April 26, 2022.

Dr Chukwuka Onyekwena participated in day two of the Academic Conference tagged “Africa’s fiscal space, fragility and conflict”, as a discussant in the session on 'Debt sustainability and impact on conflict and state fragility.
The event was organized by the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa and the African Capacity Building Foundation from February 22 to 24, 2022.
 
The Conference provides a global platform for African experts, scholars and academics to discuss and raise international awareness of certain critical issues, including the need to strengthen the capacities of African countries to formulate and implement policies that reinforce the interlinkages between development, peace, security, humanitarian and human rights, in the context of recovery and building back better from the pandemic.
 
The discussions for the conference are conducted under four sub-themes : (a) Debt sustainability and impact on conflict and state fragility; (b) Illicit financial flows, decentralization and their impacts on the fiscal space in Africa; (c) Building/strengthening Africa’s resilience to shocks; and (d) Advancing inclusive, equitable and peaceful society in Africa.

The Centre for the Study of Economies of Africa (CSEA) in collaboration with Research on Improving Systems in Education (RISE) and Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, organized a two-day intensive workshop titled “New tools for understanding learning crisis in Nigeria”.

The workshop convened key stakeholders in education from the private and public sectors to introduce the concept of learning pathways amongst students and other modern approaches to understanding the range of learning difficulties in Nigeria. Participants were also taught how to apply and use these tools to shape policies in education.

The workshop was held on the 31st January and 1st February 2022 and is intended to serve as a first step towards embedding learning pathways into education policy analysis in Nigeria.

Dr. Chukwuka Onyekwena joined other stakeholders for the 2021 Economic Policy Directorate Retreat organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) in Abuja, from December 2-3, 2021.

The meeting provided a platform for experts to deliberate on the effects of the COVID-19 on the economy and how digital technology has helped under the theme ‘Economic Policy Making Amidst an Uncertain and Digital World: Challenges and Opportunities for Nigeria’.

Dr. Onyekwena’s presentation titled  ‘Balancing a Digitally Enabled Work Environment and Economic Policy Process in Nigeria in an Era of Pandemic’ , notes that the while the pandemic has intensified the pace of adoption of digital tools at the workplace, the traditional mode of work is less likely to return fully. There is also a need for effective management of this development as it would help strengthen policy formulation.

The 2021 African Economic Conference which was held in Cabo Verde from December 2-4, 2021, provided a platform for discussions among a high-level panel including- African Heads of state, ministers, development actors, private sector entrepreneurs, academic and researchers.

Discussions were centred on how to foster a more inclusive and sustainable recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa under the theme “Financing Africa’s Post Covid-19 development”.

During the side session on “Technology innovation, SMEs, and fiscal system”, Research Associate at CSEA, Augustine Iraoya presented a co-authored paper titled “Digital Financing Frameworks, Gendered Entrepreneurship, and the New Equation”, while Research Fellow at CSEA, Uchenna Efobi, also presented a co-authored paper titled “Small Business Use of Online Tax Filling System in Nigeria”.