Finance and Accounting

Prof Imhotep Alagidede
Professor of Finance

Imhotep is a metaeconomist, and a transdisciplinary scholar with avid interest in the noumena behind phenomena. He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist, an accomplished academic, a seasoned consultant and policy maker. His extensive academic and professional career has taken him to six continents, and his works on financial economics is global, with great contributions in top-tier international peer reviewed journals.

As consultant par excellence, Imhotep has contributed to the enrichment of our understanding of the optimal provision of global public goods, and has provided research and policy inputs to national and international frameworks aimed at improving societal welfare.

Professor Imhotep Paul Alagidede received his pre-university education in Navrongo, and he obtained a first class honours degree in Economics and History from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, distinction in Master of Science degree in Economics and Finance from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, and PhD in Economics from the same university.

Professor Alagidede is very keen at developing metaleaders through a dedicated programme of mentorship. He is involved in training and coaching people from all walks of life to tap into their inner potential.

The research interest of Imhotep is tilted towards a synthesis of the thesis and the antithesis in all disciplines. He believes strongly in the value of multidisciplinary research, and after retiring as Editor-in-Chief of the African Review of Economics and Finance journal, he became the Grand Editor of the multidimensional publication, the Journal of Indigenous and Ancestral Studies. He is dedicated to finding the balance between the modern and the ancient; the known and the unknown. To this end indigenous knowledge, and how it merges with modern technology is the bedrock of Imhotep’s research trajectory. He is interested in supervising strong PhD candidates in different aspects of indigenous knowledge and its appropriate utilisation, including but not limited to herbs and plants, economic and political systems.

Selected Publications

Imhotep Paul Alagidede (2019). Dr. George Adu: a valedictory remembrance. African Review of Economics and Finance 11(1), pp 3 –8.

Paul Alagidede, Jones Odei Mensah and Muazu Ibrahim (2018). optimal deficit financing in a constrained fiscal space in Ghana.  African Development Review 30(3), pp 291-303.George Tweneboah and Paul Alagidede (2018). Dollarization, inflation targeting, and inflationary dynamics in Ghana. Journal of African Business 20 (3), pp 358-375.

Abdul Aziz Iddrisu and Imhotep Paul Alagidede (2020). Monetary policy and food inflation in South Africa: A quantile regression analysis.  Food Policy.  https://doi.org/10.1016/.j.foodpol.2019.101816

Maurice Omane-Adjepong, Imhotep Paul Alagidede (2020). High-and low-level chaos in the time and frequency market returns of leading cryptocurrencies and emerging assets. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 132, 109563

Contact details
+27 (11) 717 3996
imhotep.alagidede@wits.ac.za

Prof Odongo Kodongo
Director of PhD Programme
Associate Professor in Finance

Professor Kodongo has a wealth of teaching and research experience with articles published in several outstanding academic journals. He is the editor of Africagrowth Agenda journal and a founder member of African Development and Financial Economists Institute.

Prof Odongo Kodongo has a wealth of experience in several areas of Finance, having held several permanent and visiting positions in various universities. He has also played an active role in coordinating, developing and reviewing finance curricula. He currently teaches corporate finance, capital budgeting and project finance, investment banking, and commercial real estate finance at Wits Business School.

Prof Kodongo’s research interests are in the pricing of risk, financial markets, corporate finance and real estate and infrastructure financing. His research articles have appeared in such outstanding academic journals as Journal of Banking and Finance, Emerging Markets Review, International Review of Economics and Finance, Journal of International Financial Markets Institutions and Money among many others. He has also authored several chapters in books published by Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Edward Elgar and others.

Prof Kodongo is the editor of Africagrowth Agenda journal and reviews for several journals. He is among the founders and an active member of African Development and Financial Economists Institute (ADEFEI).

Contact details
+27 (11) 717 3806
odongo.kodongo@wits.ac.za

Jones Odei Mensah
PDM Programme Director
Senior Lecturer: Economics and Finance

He currently teaches Time Series Econometrics, Applied Financial Econometrics, Economics, and Finance and Investment Decisions at WBS.

Jones’ primary research interest is in financial interconnectedness, particularly tail risk co-movement, systemic spillovers, market integration and its implications for portfolio diversification.

He has also worked on the dependence structure among emerging and advanced financial markets, fiscal sustainability and the nexus between infrastructure and growth. His research articles have appeared in international peer reviewed journals, including but not limited to, the Singapore Economic Review, Economic Modelling, Research in International Business and Finance, Japan and the World Economy, and the Journal of Property Investment and Finance. He has also authored a book chapter published by Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier.

Jones is the editor of the Ghanaian Journal of Economics and serves on other editorial boards including the International Journal of Comparative Management and the Journal of African Political Economy and Development. He is also the Director of Finance, Investment and Social Development of the research think tank, African Finance and Economics Consult (AFEC).

Jones received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, and he holds a Master’s degree in economics and a Ph.D. in economics from the School of Business and Economics at the University of Brunei Darussalam. He held a Postdoctoral Fellow position at the Wits Business School from 2015-2017.

He has also been involved in private consulting in the areas of Finance and Economics.

Publications

• Leukes, C., & Mensah, J. O. (2019). Systemic risk contribution of financial institutions in South Africa. African Review of Economics and Finance, 11(2), 188-218.
• Obeng-Odoom, F., Mensah, J. O., & Botha, F. (2019). The African Review of Economics and Finance: past, present, and future. African Review of Economics and Finance, 11(2), 3-18.
• Mensah, J. O. & Premaratne, G. (2018). Integration of ASEAN banking sector stocks. Journal of Asian Economics, 59, 48-60.
• Alagidede, P., & Mensah, J. O. (2018). Construction, Institutions and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. African Review of Economics and Finance, 10(1), 136-163
• Mensah, J. O. & Premaratne, G. (2018). Dependence patterns among Asian Banking Sector Stocks: A Copula Approach. Research in International Business and Finance, 45, 357-388.
• Mensah, J. O. & Premaratne, G. (2017). Systemic interconnectedness among Asian Banks. Japan and the World Economy, 41, 17-33.
• Mensah, J. O. & Alagidede, P. (2017). How are Africa’s emerging stock markets related to advanced markets? Evidence from copulas. Economic Modelling, 60, 1-10.
• Ijasan, K., Tweneboah, G., & Mensah, J.O. (2017). Anti-persistence and long-memory behaviour of SA REITs. Journal of Property Investment & Finance, 35(4), 356-368.
• Amewu, G., Mensah, J. O. & Alagidede, P. (2016). Reaction of global stock markets to BREXIT. Journal of African Political Economy & Development, 1(1), 1-12
• Premaratne, G. & Mensah, J. O. (2014). Performance of Asian Mutual Funds. In G. Gregoriou & D. Lee, Handbook of Asian Finance: REITS Trading and Fund Performance (Vol. 2, p. 437-459). Oxford: Academic Press Inc.

Contact details
+27 (11) 717 3997
jones.mensah@wits.ac.za

Senior Lecturer (Finance & Accounting)
Deputy Director (MBA Block Release)

Dr Mokoaleli-Mokoteli has been involved in lecturing finance and accounting for over 105years and has won several academic awards including Fulbright Scholar, Commonwealth Scholar and the Lesotho Institute of Accountants Award.

Dr Mokoaleli-Mokoteli is a senior lecturer in finance and accounting as well as MBA Deputy Director (Block Release Program)at Wits Business School. She has been involved in lecturing finance and accounting for over 15 years. Prior to joining WBS, she was a Senior lecturer at Wits School of Accountancy, a lecturer and Head of Department at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) and a Finance Officer at Standard Chartered Bank.

Her research interests include Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policy and its effectiveness, behavioural issues in finance and investment, capital markets, financial reporting and disclosure, market-based accounting research and content analysis of accounting narratives.

Dr Mokoaleli-Mokoteli is an ad hoc reviewer of various finance and accounting journals. She has won several academic awards including Fulbright Scholar, Commonwealth Scholar and the Lesotho Institute of Accountants Award for Best Student in Accounting.

Professor of Finance & Director of MMFI

Prof Kalu has lived, studied and worked in several regions around the world including North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is an active researcher and editor and has produced several extensively recognised articles.

Professor Kalu Ojah is a full professor (finance) and director of the Master in Finance and Investment at WBS. He has garnered invaluable socio-cultural experiences by living, studying and working in several regions of the world including North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He holds both a PhD and MFn in Finance (Saint Louis, USA) and a BSc in Management/ Economics (Oral Roberts University, USA). Kalu has also taught and researched at major business schools in America, Spain, United Arab Emirates and South Africa and was a visiting scholar at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Kalu is a very active researcher and has published many peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals, many of which have been cited and awarded. Kalu also fulfils several editorial and reviewer roles. He is frequently invited by the media to provide expert views on contemporary financial economics issues and often engages in thought leadership debates and presentations.

Kalu Ojah
Professor of Finance
Wits Business School
kalu.ojah@wits.ac.za

Prof Eric Schaling
Research Director
Professor: International Finance 

Prof Schaling has been an adviser to the National Treasury, South African Reserve Bank, Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance, SADC, IMF, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Presidency.

Professor Eric Schaling holds the Jelle Zijlstra Chair of International Finance at Wits Business School. He moved from The Netherlands to South Africa in 1998 when he was appointed professor of economics at the University of Johannesburg. He has been an adviser to the National Treasury, South African Reserve Bank, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance and SADC, to name a few. He was appointed South African Reserve Bank Chair at the University of Pretoria in 2007.

Eric studied macroeconomics at the Faculty of Economic and Business Administration at Tilburg University in The Netherlands. After obtaining his doctorate there he joined the Monetary Analysis Division of the Bank of England. He has been a consultant to the IMF, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Presidency and was appointed Fellow at the Centre for Economic Research at Tilburg University, The Netherlands, in 2004.

Contact details
+27 (11) 717 3660
eric.schaling@wits.ac.za

Prof Mills Soko
Professor 

Professor Soko teaches International Business and Strategy at Wits Business School, and is former Director of UCT Graduate School of Business.

He holds a BSoc Sci degree from the University of Cape Town, an MA in International Studies from the University of Stellenbosch, as well as an MA and Doctorate in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.   His doctoral thesis examined the political economy of trade policy reform in post-apartheid South Africa.

He was previously employed by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa as a researcher on parliamentary affairs, monitoring and preparing reports on the work of parliamentary committees in South Africa's first democratic national legislature.

He also worked as researcher to the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Public Enterprises in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). This was followed by his appointment as Head of Policy and Legislation in the NCOP, where he oversaw and coordinated the work of committee researchers.

He is a member of the editorial boards of Global Governance, Journal of Common Market Studies and AfricaGrowth Agenda.  He is a research associate of the South African Institute of International Affairs as well as the Institute of Global Dialogue.   He has served as a member of the Evian Group’s Council of Global Thought Leaders and the Department of Trade and Industry’s Trade Reference Group.

He is a member of the advisory boards of Namibia Business School.  He is a member of the board of TSIBA Business School, and chairs TSIBA’s Academic Advisory Council.  He has previously chaired the board of Inyathelo (The South African Institute of Advancement).    He is also a member of the board of the Field Band Foundation.

He formerly chaired a working group on education and employment under the auspices of the Africa-Germany Partnership, an initiative of the former President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Köhler.   And he was a member of the Warwick Commission on The Future of the Multilateral Trading System. 

He is an ardent writer on pertinent local and global issues.     He is a Fin24 columnist and also writes regularly for local newspapers including Business Day, Daily Maverick, Sunday Times, Business Times, Financial Mail and The Conversation Africa. He also writes for World Financial Review.   He is also a frequent guest on current affairs programmes on radio and television, including “SAFM Sunrise” (SABC), “African Dialogue” (SABC Channel Africa), “Power Breakfast” (Power FM), “#Africa” (eNCA), “The Pulse” Newzroom Afrika, and “Weekend Breakfast” CapeTalk.

Professor Soko’s research interests include: international business; strategy and innovation; trade and investment; entrepreneurship; African political economy; and business-government relations in South Africa.

Contact details
+27 (11) 717 3585
milford.soko@wits.ac.za

George Tweneboah
Senior Lecturer: Economics and Finance

Dr Tweneboah earned his doctorate degree from the same institution in 2016 and a Master of Science degree in Finance from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. His PhD focused on dollarization and macroeconomic instability in Ghana. He has considerable teaching experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, having taught at the University of Cape Coast and Ghana Baptist University College. He has also held adjunct positions in Project Finance at Stellenbosch University Business School and Real Estate Corporate Finance at the School of Construction Economics and Management, University of the Witwatersrand. He also held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship position at WBS from October 2017 to July 2019, where he taught courses such as Development and Entrepreneurial Finance, Financial Econometrics, and Economics for Business.

In terms of research, George has gained dexterity in the application of statistical and econometric tools for advanced research using R, Eviews, Stata, Microfit, SAS, and Oxmetrics. His broad focus has been on macroeconomic models, market integration, and capital market development. More specifically, time series modelling, comovement and interdependence structure, integration of markets and economies, fiscal sustainability, and emerging market development. His recent research has also examined the behaviour of equities of real estate investment trusts (REITs).  

George has a proven capacity to conduct cutting-edge research at any level, and has articles published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals such as Physica A, Resources Policy, Journal of African Business, Journal of Developing Areas, Cogent Finance & Economics, African Finance Journal, International Journal of Business & Economics, Latin American Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Cooperation & Development, and Journal of Property Investment & Finance.

Publications

• Tweneboah, G. (2019). Dynamic interdependence of industrial metal price returns: evidence from wavelet multiple correlations. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 527, 121153.
• Owusu Junior, P., Tweneboah, G., Ijasan, K., & Jeyasreedharan, N. (2019). Modelling return behaviour of global real estate investment trusts equities. Journal of European Real Estate Research.
• Tweneboah, G. & Alagidede, P. (2019). Dollarization, inflation targeting, and inflationary dynamics in Ghana. Journal of African Business, 20 (3), 358-375.
• Ijasan, K. & Tweneboah, G. (2019). Time-dependent dynamics of Global REITs and the adaptive market hypothesis. Forthcoming: Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management.
• Owusu Junior, P., Tweneboah, G., & Adam, A.M. (2019). Interdependence of major exchange rates in Ghana: a wavelet coherence analysis. Journal of African Business, 20 (3), 407-430.
• Tweneboah, G. & Alagidede, P. (2018). Interdependence structure of precious metal prices: A multi-scale perspective. Resources Policy, 59, 427-434.
• Tweneboah, G. & Alagidede, P. (2018). Currency substitution and stability of money demand in Ghana. Journal of Developing Areas, 52(2), 41–53.
• Owusu, P.J, Tweneboah, G., & Adam, A.M. (2017). Comovement of real exchange rates in the West African Monetary Zone, Cogent Economics and Finance, 5, 1 – 18.
• Ijasan, K., Tweneboah, G., & Mensah, J. O. (2017). Anti-persistence and long memory behaviour of South African REITs. Journal of Property Investment & Finance, 35(4), 356-368.
• Tweneboah, G., & Agyapong, D. (2017). Modelling fiscal sustainability in the Middle East and North African region: A pooled mean group approach. Journal of Business and Enterprise Development, 7, 96-120.
• Tweneboah, G., Agyapong, D., & Frimpong, S. (2016). Economic integration and exchange rate behaviour in the West African Monetary Zone. African Finance Journal, 18(1), 53-80.
• Alagidede, P. & Tweneboah, G. (2015). Convergence of growth rates in the West African Monetary Zone. Journal of Economic Cooperation and Development, 36(4), 29-54.
• Tweneboah, G. (2015). Financial dollarization and exchange rate volatility in Ghana. Ghanaian Journal of Economics, 3, 28-44.
• Alagidede, P. & Tweneboah, G. (2015). On the sustainability and synchronization of fiscal policy in Latin America. Latin American Journal of Economics, 52(2), 213-240.

Contact details
+27 (11) 717 3856
george.tweneboah@wits.ac.za

Euphemia Godspower-Akpomiemie

Euphemia completed her PhD in financial management at WBS. She also holds her Master’s in Finance and Investment and has served as a sessional lecturer at WBS (MM-FI and MM-DB). Her research interests include financial regulations/supervision, efficiency and performance matters; fintech and digitisation in the financial industry; banking fragility, twin-peaks, market discipline and Basel accords; money laundering and transparency in the banking industries; and other regulatory matters in the financial system.