KNUST Biz School To Host First AREF Conference

From Issah Alhassan, Kumasi
THE BUSINESS School of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in collaboration with African Finance and Economic Consult (AFEC) and the University of Witwatersrand Business School, South Africa, will organize the first ever African Review of Economics and Finance (AREF).

The programme, scheduled to take place between August 11-12, 2016, will feature prominent figures and experts in the field of economic and finance from Africa and across the globe, including Professor at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, Prof. Augustin Fosu and Professor and Chair of Mine Geotechnical Engineering at the School of Mining Engineering, UNSW Australia, Prof. Fidelis T. Suorineni.

It is under the theme ‘Natural Resources, Institutions and Economic

Development in Africa’
The conference is being facilitated by Prof. Paul Alagidede- Finance Department, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and Dr. Franklin Oben-Odoom, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

It will discuss various topics clustered into eight themes, namely Natural Resources Rents, Energy and Development, Political Economy of Development, Infrastructure, Finance, Cash Flows and Monetary Policy, Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Finance, as well as macroeconomics, transports and development.

Financial markets, crisis and distribution, trade, development and health care financing complete the list of papers to be presented and discussed by over 60 participants expected to attend the maiden AREF conference.

The Keynote Speakers will respectively give lectures on two major topics. Prof. Augustin Fosu of ISSER, will speak on ‘Natural Resources, Institutions and Economic Development in Africa’ whilst Prof. Fidelis Suorineni of the School of Mining Engineering, UNSW Australia, will also address participants on ‘Integrating Nationalism in resource development for economic empowerment- some experiences and lessons learnt’.

The conference papers will take an interdisciplinary approach to economics as a social science, focusing on ‘African economies and/or how they relate to other economies in acrid and the rest of the world’

It will also afford participants the opportunity to discuss the myriad of challenges confronting the continent, more especially the profitable as well as the equitable use of its natural resources for the development of the citizenry by various governments.