An extraordinary research workshop was held at Loughborough University on Friday 25th January 2019, jointly convened by the Centre for Global Finance (CGF) at SOAS and the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University.
Professor Steven Rothberg, the PVC (Research) at Loughborough University, officially declared the workshop open at 09:30, flanked by Professor Victor Murinde, the Director of CGF. More than 70 researchers, policy makers and practitioners from the UK, Netherlands, France, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Bulgaria, Israel, Iran, China, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and Turkey came together to exchange ideas on preliminary research findings from the ongoing research project on ‘Delivering Inclusive Financial Development and Growth’, which is funded by the DFID and ESRC (Research Grant Ref. ES/N013344/2).
Importantly, the workshop was specially dedicated to a member of the research team of the project – Professor Christopher J. Green (Loughborough University), to celebrate his life-long contributions to economics and finance and to pay tribute to his exceptional mentorship of researchers both through his university academic career as well as his active involvement in the critical capacity building dimensions of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).
The keynote speech was given by Prof Njuguna Ndung'u, Executive Director of the AERC and former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya. He eulogised Prof Green’s dedication and contribution to the frontiers of research in economics and finance and to his exceptional contributions to the AERC Network.
‘We should continue the legacy of Prof Christopher Green as we seek to provide answers to these and other questions relating to financial sector development and financial inclusion in developing countries, in general, and Africa, in particular.’ said Prof Ndung’u.
Prof Ndung’u also shared his insights into ‘Gaps, Challenges, and Policy Opinions in Financial Development and Financial Inclusion in Africa’ and suggested three key elements that are fundamental to sustaining the digital evolution for financial development in Africa - ‘Connectivity, interoperability, and electronic ID systems’.
The keynote speech was followed by presentations and discussions of 13 papers from the ongoing research project. These research papers provided preliminary findings on diverse topics in relation to Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Economic Development. To view presentation details, please contact Dr Meng Xie at xm1@soas.ac.uk
In his closing remarks, Professor Green expressed deep gratitude to the workshop organisers and to all participants at the workshop, adding: ‘I have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with so many wonderful people…thank you to all speakers and everyone who has come to this workshop and to all who have made sacrifices and contributions in order to make this day a special one.’