Abdoulaye Ndiaye

Senegal

This young professor advocates innovative measures to drive vigorous and sustainable growth “over a generation”.

A professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a visiting researcher with the United Nations, as well as the prestigious American universities Harvard and Princeton, Abdoulaye Ndiaye is the inaugural winner of the Africa NextGen Economist Award, presented last May in Kigali on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum. A graduate of École Polytechnique with a PhD from Northwestern University, he argues that the continent needs “economist-thinkers” capable of reimagining the African economy, rather than continuing to apply policies devised in Paris or Washington that do not always serve African interests. He believes that, faced with the challenges of youth employment and the energy transition, Africa must achieve “sustainable 10% growth over a generation”. This is an attainable goal given the continent’s resources, provided it can overcome the obstacles facing African economies, public finances and businesses. African states should therefore prioritise, in their international relations, the development of cooperative partnerships based on shared interests—even if that means playing rival powers against one another in order to secure better investment and financing terms. The professor also advocates a long-term solution to break the recurring cycle of debt crises: borrowing not to finance consumption, but always with the aim of investing. Abdoulaye Ndiaye is also a member of the Finance for Development Lab, an independent economic think tank dedicated to developing a fairer and more effective international financial system.