Tope Fasua: African economists must produce bold research to win global recognition
Presidential Economic Adviser Tope Fasua argues African economists are uniquely positioned to understand the continent's realities—informal economies, historical dislocations, data gaps—but have never won a Nobel Prize in Economics. In a Premium Times opinion piece today, Fasua questions whether the Nobel committee overlooks African work due to underdevelopment, lack of industrialization, or gatekeeping in top journals.
Fasua cites the recent Bank of Industry lecture where Professor Asad Alam presented Solow's Total Factor Productivity model, noting Nigerian scholars should interrogate how the "residual" captures growth from Nigeria's massive informal sector. He challenges the traditional four factors of production (land, labour, capital, entrepreneurship), proposing technology, data, knowledge, and AI as standalone productivity drivers more relevant to modern African economies.
Drawing parallels to COVID-19—where Western predictions of African catastrophe proved wrong—and Togo's successful UN campaign to correct the Mercator map's distortion of Africa's size, Fasua argues African intellectual contributions are systematically minimized. He lists recent Nobel winners (2019-2026) covering innovation, institutions, women's labour, poverty alleviation, and behavioural economics—topics he says African economists have rich human stories to explore.
Fasua specifically highlights CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso's "organic thinking" that repositioned Nigeria's economy as Nobel-worthy documentation. His call: African economists must be daring, articulate, and less dependent on foreign funding. "Our time is now."
Will you support African-led economic research, or wait for external validation of the continent's intellectual capital?