David Ndii is a Kenyan economist. He has worked as an economist for the World Bank, a policy adviser for the governments of Kenya and Rwanda, and a public finance expert on the Kenyan constitutional review process. He also co-founded and served as chief executive of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Kenya’s first economics think tank. He holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford and is a Rhodes Scholar and Eisenhower Fellow. In October 2022, he was appointed chairperson of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.
African policymakers should embrace a more pragmatic economic agenda that recognizes and capitalizes on Africa’s comparative edge: a greater abundance of land rather than low-cost labor.
Instead of fixating on infrastructure, African countries should look to the experience of Latin American countries with similar resource endowments: a greater relative abundance of land than low-cost labor.
Join us for an in-depth conversation with leading scholars on U.S., China, and Africa policy to discuss whether the BRI and B3W can address Africa’s financing needs and how to avoid the negative spillovers of great power competition on the African continent.
