Professor Mthuli Ncube is that rare finance minister who arrived in office already ranked among the world’s leading thinkers on African economics. Appointed Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance in September 2018, he has brought to one of the continent’s most difficult economic briefs a career bridging academia, investment banking and multilateral policy.
His scholarly credentials are formidable. Ncube holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge, has been Dean and Professor of Finance at the University of the Witwatersrand, founded its Centre for Entrepreneurship, and lectured at the London School of Economics. A prolific author, he has written widely on monetary policy, financial markets and the rise of Africa’s middle class. He pairs that authority with markets experience: he built a career as an investment banker at Investec, founded the firms Barbican Holdings and Selwyn Capital, and before government led Quantum Global Research Lab in Switzerland.
Perhaps most significant was his tenure as Chief Economist and Vice President of the African Development Bank, where he shaped the institution’s long-term strategy and championed an “inclusive growth” agenda. At Zimbabwe’s Treasury, Ncube has faced the extraordinary challenge of stabilising an economy long buffeted by inflation and currency turbulence, a task requiring both technical ingenuity and political resolve. A regular commentator on the BBC and the Financial Times, he remains one of Africa’s most recognisable economic figures: a professor turned practitioner, applying theory to one of the continent’s toughest real-world tests.
