In episode one of the fourth season of Foresight Africa podcast, host Landry Signe talks with the new director of the Africa Growth Initiative, Pierre Nguimkeu, who talks about his research priorities for AGI in the coming year.
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Transcript
[music]
SIGNÉ: Hello, I am Landry Signé, senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program on the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Welcome to Foresight Africa podcast, where I engage with contributors to our annual flagship Foresight Africa report and other experts who share your unique insights on innovative solutions to Africa’s most complex development challenges while highlighting the continent’s opportunities to advance impactful engagement between Africa, the United States, and the global community.
You can learn more about this show and our work at Brookings dot edu slash ForsightAfricaPodcast. This is the first episode of season four of the podcast. This season will provide incredible insights on pressing and timely topics in Africa, U.S.-Africa relations, and Africa on the global stage. Many of our guests are contributors to this year’s publication of Foresight Africa: Top priorities for the continent 2025–2030, which takes a longer view than past reports as it looks ahead of the next five years instead of only one year as we approach the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals. I am excited to have you join me on this remarkable journey as I and my guests explore Africa’s challenges, opportunities, strengths and future through engaging conversations.
Today, I welcome a guest, very special to the team at the Africa Growth Initiative, which we refer to as AGI: Professor Pierre Nguimkeu. Professor Pierre Nguimku is the new director of AGI and a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. Pierre joined our team in mid-December, and most recently he was a professor of economics at Georgia State University. His primary research interest are models and methods that promote evidence-based policies and long-term strategies for economic growth in Africa. Pierre has also contributed to several books, including The Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the potential of digital technologies for all, and Industrialization in sub–Saharan Africa: Seizing opportunity in global value chains, and others. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today, Professor Pierre. We have a lot to discuss.
NGUIMKEU: Thank you very much, Professor Landry. Thank you for inviting me to this show. Thank you.
SIGNÉ: And first, let me tell you how grateful and excited we are to have you and to welcome you at the Brookings Institution and at the Africa Growth Initiative. We are very much looking forward to working with you and under your leadership, Pierre.
NGUIMKEU: Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here and I’m excited to be here as well.
SIGNÉ: Please start by telling us why you wanted to become a scholar.
[4:29]
NGUIMKEU: I don’t know if I always wanted to become a scholar, but I certainly wanted to do something meaningful with my life. Turns out my dad was a scholar, so it was relatively more natural for me to follow his footsteps rather than pushing other equally meaningful professions. My dad infused a contagious momentum to all his children. But I guess that’s a story for another day.
But I wanted to solve questions. Initially, it was abstract mathematical equations, and in my scholarly journey I gradually moved to more real-life economic questions. But that connection has remained in my work, as you can see in some of my academic research.
SIGNÉ: Fantastic, Pierre. And your role as the director of AGI provides you with an opportunity to build upon the initiatives, past successes while implementing new ideas to expend the initiative’s reach and impact. Please share with us your goals for AGI over the upcoming year.
[5:42]
NGUIMKEU: With the previous leadership, AGI has worked to establish itself as a preeminent center on African development policy from an African perspective. That’s a very important angle because I believe that the most effective economic models, policies, and institutions for Africa must emerge from the continent’s own rich tapestry of cultural heritage, historic context, anthropological background, and traditional values.
The core challenge for both scholars and policymakers lies in developing actionable policies and institutions that not only deliver socially desirable outcomes, but also resonate deeply with the beliefs and values of the people within their specific context, considering their unique socio-cultural dynamics in external interactions.
Those are the lens through which I intend to approach and channel our various project and initiatives around the key thematic areas at AGI. I also plan to do more training and capacity building with our partners and scholars on the continent, which I think have been a bit slow in recent years.
SIGNÉ: Let’s pivot now to your research as the work you have done provides researchers and policymakers on the continent with useful tools and insights. You have done significant research on methodological approaches to research in Africa. And one common complaints from scholars or non-governmental organizations, think tanks, and policymakers alike, is that the data coming out of Africa is inaccurate or, let’s say, insufficient. Can you provide an example of inaccurate data that researchers who study Africa may encounter?
[7:41]
NGUIMKEU: First of all, there is some bad data everywhere, not just in Africa. I’ve worked with data from the U.S. using, for example, the Current Population survey, the Survey on Income and Program Participation, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and so on. All these surveys also have problems. For example, the question about food stamp participation has misreporting issues that range from 30% all the way to 50% false negative depending on the survey. This means that 50% of the responses about this particular question and many others are wrong. We know that because we can sometimes perform what we call validation studies by comparing survey responses with administrative data.
Does that mean that we have to throw away those data? Of course not. But not addressing those issues could lead to a research that induces policymakers to take very drastic and often wrong decisions. And the consequences could be devastating for people’s life.
Back to the data from Africa, just like for any data, you need to find out what makes the data a bad quality. Is it because the sample size is smaller than what you need? Or do you have missing observations in the dataset? Or do you have measurement errors in the responses? And if these are measurement errors, what type of measurement error, is it classical measurement errors or non-classical measurement errors? What I’m trying to say is that depending on the type of issues that you have identified in your data, specific solutions exist to solve those issues. And in some of my research I have developed some of these solutions. But the researcher has to take the first step at identifying these issues in the first place.
SIGNÉ: What recommendations will you have to ensure quality data for those researchers, Professor Pierre.
[9:34]
NGUIMKEU: There is no way to ensure that the data you want to use will absolutely be of good quality from the outset. But there is always a way to deal with poor quality data, and that’s the where the focus should really be in my view. This is because the quality of the data does not always depend on the data collection instrument, which could be very sophisticated, especially with emerging technologies. It could simply depend on the nature of the question being asked in a survey. For example, if a bank company asks a customer in a survey, how much debt do you own? The customer is more likely going to either misreport or not respond at all. So that could create two type of issues with the data: missing data or measurement errors. That’s true for any questions that involve, for example, stigma or risky behavior. And this will lead to bad data.
SIGNÉ: As you know, we have just launched Foresight Africa, 2025–2030, which focuses on Africa over the next five years as we approach the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals. Some of you are past research has focused on constraints to entrepreneurship on the continent. What are these constraints and how do you think they are hindering progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals?
[11:15]
NGUIMKEU: One of the major constraints to entrepreneurship in the continent is access to credit. It’s very difficult for small-scale entrepreneurs, for people operating small-scale activities to obtain loans from the formal credit markets such as commercial banks. They have to provide high collateral, which obviously creates a selection bias among those that can start a productive business. If people can successfully borrow to start and run their businesses efficiently, well, they’ll create wealth and jobs, and many of these Sustainable Development Goals will be achieved, especially the first two.
SIGNÉ: How can these constraints be overcome?
[11:56]
NGUIMKEU: Well, that’s a good question and a question that we as scholars certainly needs to look at look into more carefully. First of all, we need to understand Africa from the inside and try to expand and update the traditional forms of financing that already exist and operate informally within the communities. I’m talking about the credit savings and credit associations, the multi-risk self-insurance group, the self-help groups, et cetera. These are entities that have emerged indigenously within communities as a solution to financing and insurance issues. And these solutions are based on the local mentalities and socio-cultural realities.
Some of the tragedies in African economies come from the fact that we import some models without adapting them and we hope that they will work just fine. The banking system is one of them and is not working for the small businesses and for the small-scale activities that we see. And these small-scale activities are the overwhelming majority in the labor force.
SIGNÉ: Professor Pierre, as a scholar, you probably often asked, what is your research agenda? Where do you see your research going in the next 2 to 3 years?
[13:14]
NGUIMKEU: Going forward, I see my research as trying to address some of the issues I have mentioned earlier, including financing issues in the continent, governance and institutions, ethnic fragmentation, data quality and methodological issues, gender issues. But also more broader issues such as industrialization, food security, climate risk. and the environment.
SIGNÉ: And what inspires you to analyze these topics?
[13:45]
NGUIMKEU: What inspires me is the fact that I believe these are some of the most critical issues facing the continent. But don’t get me wrong; these issues are not new and have been also analyzed by other experts. I think they have sometimes been analyzed with a misunderstanding of the specific African context and often with poor methodology or poor data.
SIGNÉ: I like this. And I like how you connect the dots. Professor Pierre, if you have listened to previous podcast episodes, then you know that I always like to end each interview by asking the guest two questions. First, building on your work and experiences, what is one piece of advice you would give to African or global policy makers to ensure the best outcomes on the continent?
[14:50]
NGUIMKEU: One piece of advice I would recommend to use the true African perspective in our research or in our policy advice. Africa is unique and the issues facing the continent, therefore require original and creative solutions. I used to ask researchers in the workshop that I conduct in Africa, I asked them, when you define those concepts or make those assumptions in your studies, are you truly thinking about what is actually going on in your local environment? Or you are just trying to replicate what you’ve read in some of the reports coming from some prestigious foreign institution? So that is my one piece of advice.
SIGNÉ: Fantastic. And given you a successful career, an impact, what advice would you give to youth hoping to follow in your footsteps?
[15:47]
NGUIMKEU: I believe motivation, hard work, and discipline are key to success anywhere. I think it’s difficult to go wrong with those qualities.
[music]
SIGNÉ: Professor Pierre, thank you so much for joining us today. It has been a treat to have you on the podcast and as the new director of AGI, we look forward to the great work you will do.
NGUIMKEU: Thank you so much for inviting me.
SIGNÉ: I am Landry Signé, and this has been Foresight Africa. Thank you, listeners, for joining me today. I will be back in two weeks with another episode, and I hope you will join me and my next guest.
The Foresight Africa podcast is brought to you by the Brookings Podcast Network. Send your feedback and questions to podcasts at Brookings dot edu. My special thanks to the production team including Fred Dews, producer; Nichole Grossman and Nicole Ntungire, associate producers; and Gastón Reboredo, audio engineer. The show’s art was designed by Shavanthi Mendis. Additional promotional support for this podcast comes from my colleagues in Brookings Global and the Office of Communications at Brookings.
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Commentary
PodcastNew AGI Director Pierre Nguimkeu calls for a true African perspective in research and policy advice about Africa
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Foresight Africa Podcast
February 5, 2025