Chartered Risk Management Institute of Nigeria

OSITA OGBU who hails from Ovoko in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State was born at Onitsha in September 1957. He is currently a Professor of Economics and for ten years the Director of the Institute for Development Studies (2011-2021) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He was educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he graduated in 1979 with a B.Sc. in Economics and at Howard University in Washington D.C., USA where he obtained an M.A. in Economics in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Economics in 1988. He also earned a certificate in Corporate Governance from Harvard University in 2009. He was a Visiting Fellow/Scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. in 2012. He serves on the faculty of the African Development Institute of the African Development Bank. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Education (FNAE).

He was a Consultant Research Economist in the Africa Region of the World Bank in Washington D.C between 1987 and 1991. He worked for the International Development Research Centre of Canada in Ottawa and at the regional office in Nairobi as a Program Office/Senior Program Specialist from 1991 to 2001. He was the Executive Director/CEO of the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), an inter-disciplinary, international policy research and advocacy institution based in Nairobi from 2001 to 2005. He was a former Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan. He was the Chief Economic Adviser to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and de facto Minister of National Planning under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Prof. Ogbu has served and still serves on many Boards/Governing Councils including the Mainstreet Bank, African Population and Health Research Center, Kenya, Afriheritage Institution, Anchor Insurance, The Clement Isong Foundation, Afrinvest (West Africa) Ltd, Enugu State University of Science and Technology and Veritas University, Abuja. He is currently the Co-Chair of the Economic Advisory Council of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). On September 29, 2014, he was invested with the prestigious Nigerian National Honors, Officer of the Order of the Niger, OON.

Prof. Ogbu has published and edited several books as well as well as scholarly papers on a wide range of Africa’s developmental challenges. His latest book, Development As Attitude, was published in December 2023 and has been adopted by NESG as a basis for national dialogue. He is a novelist – the author of the novel, The Moon Also Sets – currently used as a Literature Text for A’ Level examination in Uganda. He has lived in Nigeria, United States, Canada and Kenya and has travelled to over 46 countries mostly for professional engagements.

Prof. Ogbu is a thought and community leader with so many mentees under his wings. He is currently the Chairman of Alaigbo Stabilization Fund under the auspices of Ohaneze Ndigbo.

Prof. Ogbu is married to Dr. Ogugua Osi-Ogbu, a Consultant Geriatrician at the National Hospital, Abuja and they have 3 Children - Ikeme, Adaora and Oforma.

Prof Ogbu holds the traditional titles of Oshimiri of Nsukka and Okeosisi of Enugu State.