UCT Inaugural Lecture of Professor Amin Karimu

Professor Amin Karimu’s inaugural lecture

The University of Cape Town invites you to an inaugural lecture by Professor Amin Karimu

Topic: Can Africa turn its wealth into prosperity?

Africa is a continent of extraordinary wealth, endowed with vast reserves of minerals, oil and gas, fertile land, abundant renewable energy potential, a young population, and some of the world’s richest biodiversity. Yet, for many Africans, this wealth has not translated into better lives. Poverty remains widespread, infrastructure gaps are large, reliable and affordable energy is still out of reach for many households and businesses, and access to finance continues to constrain investment opportunities. This inaugural lecture asks a simple but important question: Can Africa turn its wealth into prosperity?

Drawing on his research over the years, Professor Karimu reflects on how natural resources, institutions, energy and finance interact to shape Africa’s development, and why having resources is only the beginning of the journey towards shared prosperity. The real challenge is how countries use what they have to build productive economies and improve people’s lives. Looking ahead, this challenge is becoming even more complex. Africa needs more energy, infrastructure and investment to create jobs and raise living standards, but it must pursue this transformation in a world increasingly shaped by climate change.

The inaugural lecture considers how climate, green finance, renewable energy, and new approaches to mobilising private investment can support a more sustainable and inclusive development path. At its heart, the lecture makes a simple argument that Africa is not poor in resources; the challenge is transforming what Africa has into what Africans need. Whether the continent succeeds will depend less on the resources beneath its soil and more on the institutions it builds, the investments it makes, and the choices it makes about how to turn its wealth into lasting, widely shared prosperity.

Date: Thursday, 1 October 2026

Time: 17:00 SAST

Venue: Mafeje Room, Bremner Building, Middle Campus

About our speaker

Professor Amin Karimu is a Professor of Economics and is affiliated with the Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU) in the School of Economics. His research spans energy and environmental economics, development economics, applied microeconomics and natural resource economics, with a particular focus on the development challenges and opportunities facing African economies.

At the heart of Professor Karimu’s research is a question that has shaped much of his academic journey: how can African economies transform their considerable human and natural resource wealth into sustainable and widely shared prosperity? His work approaches this question from several interconnected perspectives, examining energy access and energy-sector reform, natural resources, climate change, renewable energy, green finance, firm productivity and financial constraints. Across these areas, he combines applied econometric methods with a strong interest in policy, seeking to understand not only what constrains development, but also the institutions, policies and financing mechanisms that can help overcome those constraints.

Professor Karimu holds a PhD in Economics from Umeå University in Sweden, an MSc in Economics from Dalarna University, also in Sweden, and a BA in Economics and Geography from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. His academic career has taken him across Africa and Europe. Before joining UCT, he held an academic position at the University of Ghana and previously worked as a senior researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics (CERE) at Umeå University. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Stockholm School of Economics and a Visiting Professor at Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom.