Obasanjo, Sachs to headline second Babacar Ndiaye Lecture

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and leading development economist Prof. Jeffrey Sachs will headline the 2018 Babacar Ndiaye International Lecture scheduled for Bali, Indonesia on October 13 under the auspices of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in honou of Dr. Babacar Ndiaye, the former President of the African Development Bank from 1985 to 1995, who died on 13 July 2017.
According to Afreximbank, the two world figures will speak on the theme “Global Power Disequilibrium, Trade Wars and Implications for Africa” while former CNN Anchor, Isha Sesay will serve as moderator and master compere of the lecture scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings.
Guests at the 2018 lecture will be drawn from leaders of African and global banks, development finance institutions, the business community and political leaders who would be attending World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings.
Others are members of the diplomatic community, policy makers, academicians, African and non-African ministers of finance, economy and development, central bank governors, and CEOs of global and corporate Africa.
Ndiaye, is being honoured for his role in creation of several other continental institutions, such as Shelter Afrique and the African Business Roundtable, and to foster an of young entrepreneurs who have become builders of Africa.
Prof. Sachs is an American economist and public policy analyst, who holds the chair of Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the highest rank Columbia bestows on its faculties.
He has, among other posts, served as Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General; Co-Founder and Director of the Millennium Promise; Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network; Economic Advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia; Research Associate as the National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, United States; Member, Brookings Panel of Economists, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; and Co-Chair, Asian Economic Panel of Economists.
Similarly, Chief Obasanjo is reputed to have used his influence to advocate for Africa’s development, making appearances at various international forums where he has made the case for a stronger African voice in global economic decision making, among other things.
It will be recalled that Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, delivered the inaugural Babacar Ndiaye Lecture in Washington D.C. on 15 October 2017.