Mthuli Ncube

School / Education

Ncube attended Fatima Primary School.
He then attended Inyathi Secondary School.
He did his A levels at Fletcher High School, in Gweru. (Math, Physics, Biology).
1983 – 1985, BA Economics, University of Zimbabwe.
1987 - M-Phil, Economics, Cambridge.
^[3]

Mthuli Ncube holds a PhD in Economics (Mathematical Finance) from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.^[2]

Service / Career

1989 – Executive Committee, Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
1989 - Finished writing Development Dynamics: Theories and Lessons from Zimbabwe to be published.

In a 1989 interview with the Financial Gazette, he commented:

all economies need structural adjustment because there is no economy which grows on an ideal path.

and

“we should not go for loans where rate of interest exceeds rate of GDP growth because then we are living beyond our means”.

Ncube founded Barbican Bank in 2003 and was its CEO until the bank was closed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in 2004. The then Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono accused several bankers (Ncube included) of abusing depositor funds, engaging in illicit foreign currency trades and failing to uphold sound corporate governance standards. Ncube stayed in exiled until 2018 when he returned to assume the position of Finance Minister. Ncube has denied fleeing the country during the 2004 banking crisis.^[4]

Barbican Bank Mthuli ncube

He was a Lecturer in Finance at the London School of Economics, UK. Before joining the Africa Development Bank where he served as Vice President and Chief Economic Officer, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce Law and Management, and also Director and Professor of Finance at Wits Business School, all at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has extensive experience as an investment banker and as a regulator, having served as a Board member of the South African Financial Services Board (FSB), which regulates non-bank financial institutions. He also served as Chairman of the National Small Business Advisory Council (NSBAC) in South Africa.

For the last 20 years, he has been devoted to economic research on Africa with the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). He is now Chairman of the Board of AERC.^[2]

Mthuli Ncube is currently (in 2016) a Professor of Public Policy at Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, where he teaches and researches in the areas on macroeconomics, finance, development economics, political economy, and health economics.^[5]

Ncube served as Vice President and Chief Economist of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). He was Chairman of Operations Committee (Approving Investment Projects and Operations) for the bank in 2011-2012. Additionally, he was the Chair of the Advisory Panel on Ethics and Anti-Corruption for the AfDB in 2012.

Just before joining the African Development Bank, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce Law and Management, and also Dean and Professor of Finance at Wits Business School, all at the University of Witwatersrand, in South Africa.

Ncube served as a Board member of the South African Financial Services Board (FSB), which regulates non-bank financial institutions in South Africa. He was also Chairman of the National Small Business Advisory Council (NSBAC) at DTI in South Africa in 2009-2010.

2023 - Following the 23-24 August 2023 elections, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced his new cabinet on 11 September 2023. Mthuli Ncube was named as the Minister of Finance and Investment Promotion, with David Kudakwashe Mnangagwa as Deputy.

Published Works

Ncube has published extensively papers, articles and books in the area of finance and economics and received several awards. Some of his books include;

• Mathematical Finance
• Financial Systems and Monetary Policy in Africa
• Development Dynamics, among others.

His papers have appeared in the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of African Economies, Mathematical Finance, Applied Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, among others. Some of the reports he has led have been cited in The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times, among other newspapers.

He was nominated Chairman of the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum on “Poverty and Economic Development in 2010/2011 and Deputy Chairman in 2011/2012.^[2]

Books

• Development Dynamics: Lessons from Zimbabwe (1992)
• Monetary Policy and the Economy in South Africa (Macmillan 2013)
• Quantitative Easing and its Impact (2013)
• Africa’s Middleclass (2014)
• African Financial Markets and Monetary Policy (2009)
• Inclusive Growth in Africa (to be published in 2015)
• Infrastructure in Africa(2017)
• Global uncertainty, and Exchange Rates (2018).

Events

Bond Note Not Equal To USD

Mthuli Ncube admitted that the United States Dollar was not equal to the Bond Note or the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) electronic dollars. This is in stark contrast to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya who insisted that the money is at par despite the fact that he ordered banks to separate bank accounts into Nostro Foreign Currency Accounts (FCAs) and RTGS FCAs. In his presentation at the United Kingdom think tank Chatham House, Ncube said,

The market is setting the pace. What is left for us is choreography and management of the economic fundamentals. The economy has dollarised. RTGS [real time gross settlement] balances are over $6 billion. The market is doing everything, we are going through a transition. The market has said these currencies [US dollar and bond notes] are not at par. I don’t want to argue with the market. The bond notes will, at some point, have to be demonetised and I cannot tell you (when that will be).

Blended Inflation

Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube was challenged in Parliament in May 2023 to provide a detailed explanation before Parliament about Statutory Instrument 127 and blended inflation. Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda said Ncube should appear before Parliament to explain SI 127.

SI 127 of 2021 amends the Exchange Control Act and the Bank Use Promotion Act, imposing heavy administrative penalties for breaches of special provisions of the Act. The SI prohibits businesses from selling goods and services or quoting them at an exchange rate above the foreign currency auction system rate. It also punishes businesses for issuing clients with Zimbabwean dollar receipts for payment received in foreign currency. The SI has been viewed as an attempt to curtail the exchange rate on the parallel market to stabilize the local currency. However, business leaders view it as a regulation that could lead to shortages of goods and akin to price controls (cost-push inflation).

Blended inflation is a method used to calculate inflation by taking into account both foreign and domestic currencies in countries with multiple currencies in circulation. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe uses this method to measure the rate of inflation by converting prices of goods and services into a common currency, such as the US dollar. The prices are then aggregated and weighted to calculate inflation. Although blended inflation is considered more accurate than using a single currency, it can also mask the impact of inflation on specific sectors of the economy, which can lead to a distortion in the inflation data. Therefore, the use of blended inflation can be controversial. ^[6]

2023 General Elections

Ncube was the ZANU PF first-past-the-post candidate for Cowdray Park National Assembly Constituency in the 23 August 2023 elections. He came second at the polls, behind the winner, Pashor Raphael Sibanda, of the Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC). Ncube garnered 6 513 votes against Sibanda's 8 411.

Awards

On 10 December 2023, Ncube was voted as the best African Finance Minister of the Year and named among the 100 Most Reputable People at the Global Reputation Forum, Reputable Bank and Fintech Awards held in Westminster, England.^[7]

Further Reading

See Great Dyke Investments.

Trivia

• His interests are golf, chess, reading and painting.
• In 2021, Mthuli Ncube was voted and ranked in the top 5 Ministers of Finance in Africa in 2021 by the Senegalese publication “Financial Afrik”.^[8]

References