Nairobi, Kenya: Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u challenged institutions of higher learning to invest in training more economists, saying the country suffers serious capacity deficits in the sector.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u
“Economics is one important discipline we need to invest in and develop capacity to improve on public policy,” he said.
He was speaking during the opening of the Economics building at Kenyatta University, which is expected to nurture the country’s future economists.
Ndung’u said there is need to establish more schools of economics to train well skilled economists and satisfy the growing capacity requirement in the public and private sectors.
He reiterated that the new Constitution created devolved governments generating a huge demand for economists at the county level to support economic reforms and decision-making based on sound evidence.
“We need strong institutions to manage the process as strong institutions define the rules of the game and appropriate incentives in order to provide prudent behaviour in the markets. Capacity is required to keep the economy on positive growth trajectory,” he said.
Regional integration
The CBK boss cited recent developments such as regional integration fronts at the East African Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the continental level, the discovery of natural resource wealth, growing demand for economic research and policy analysis as among advances that have pushed the demand for economists to a new high level.
Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor Prof Olive Mugenda said the building is a unique infrastructure that will provide modern facilities appropriate for the teaching and learning of economics.
“With the growing global trends in trade due to increased globalisation, the training of economists has become more complex and demanding, thus quality training demands for a conducive training environment,” she said.
