Ernest Aryeetey

Aryeetey was educated at Achimota School (1968-1973) and at the Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School, Legon (1973-1975).

He studied Economics with Statistics (1975-1978) at the University of Ghana and took a master's degree in Regional Planning at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (1979-1981) and obtained a PhD (Doktor-Ingenieur) from the University of Dortmund, Germany in 1985. In July 2017, the University of Sussex, UK, awarded Ernest Aryeetey an honorary degree for significant contribution to the study of African economies and to higher education transformation in Africa. [2][3] Ernest Aryeetey’s area of specialisation is Development Economics. He was elected Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.

After teaching on the Spring Programme at the University of Dortmund for a year, Ernest Aryeetey returned to Ghana in 1986 to start work as a Research Fellow at the University of Ghana’s Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER). He was promoted Senior Research Fellow in 1990, Associate Professor in 1997 and a full Professor in 2000. Ernest Aryeetey taught at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana (1986-1992). He has also been Temporary Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1993); Visiting Professor at Yale University Department of Economics (1999); and the Cornell Visiting Professor, Department of Economics at Swarthmore College (2001-2002).

Ernest Aryeetey's research work focuses on the economics of development with interest in institutions and their role in development, regional integration, economic reforms, financial systems in support of development and small enterprise development. He is very well known for his work on informal finance and microfinance in Africa. He has consulted for various international agencies on a number of development and political economy subjects. He has presented seminar papers at Departments of Economics and Planning in such universities as Ohio State University, the University of Manchester, Oxford University, Harvard University, Yale University, New York University, University of Copenhagen, University of California, Los Angeles, Georgetown University, and Sophia University, Tokyo.

Ernest Aryeetey has published 3 books, 6 edited volumes, 32 journal articles and over 100 conference, working and discussion papers. Among his publications are Financial Integration and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Routledge 1998) and Economic Reforms in Ghana: the Miracle and the Mirage (James Currey 2000). His publication with Ravi Kanbur on “The Economy of Ghana Sixty Years after Independence” and published by Oxford University Press in 2017 is one of his best known recent works. He was the second recipient of the Michael Bruno award of the World Bank to become a Visiting Scholar for May–October 1998.

Aryeetey was the President of the Ghana Institute of Planners from 1998 until 2000. He was a Member of the Programme Committee of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Nairobi (2005-2009). He has been associated with AERC since 1988.

Ernest Aryeetey at UNU-WIDER Conference on Learning to Compete Industrial Development and Policy in Africa

He was the Chairman of the Board of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki (2009-2015). In April 2016, he was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Director-General Irina Bokova of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to the governing council of the United Nations University.[4]

In addition, Aryeetey served as a Member of the Board of the Global Development Network (GDN) New Delhi (2004-2009) and remains a member of the Governing Board of the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, Germany. Until April 2019, he was the Board Chair of Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Aryeetey was a Managing Editor of the Journal of African Economies and was also a member of the editorial board of Development Southern Africa and of African Development Review. He was also the Editor of the New Legon Observer.

Aryeetey was a non-Executive Director of Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd in 2004-2007 and has been a non-Executive Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd since 2010. He is currently the Board Chair of the Bank.

Ernest Aryeetey delivered the 2018 WIDER Annual Development Lectures in Helsinki, where he spoke on “The Political Economy of Structural Transformation: Has Democracy Failed African Economies?”

Ernest Aryeetey was the Priest’s Warden of Christ Anglican Church at University of Ghana (2003-2009). He was nominated and elected President of the Old Achimotan Association (OAA) in 2015 and was reelected to the same position in 2018.[5]

Aryeetey is married to Ellen Bortei-Doku Aryeetey and has two children, James Nii Armah and Felicia Naa Dedei.