Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR (born 28 July 1960) is a Nigerian economics professor and the former Governor and chairman of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He was named governor on 29th May 2004.
He is also a member of the British Department for International Development’s International Advisory Group.
He hails from Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State.
Soludo is a core professional in the business of macroeconomics. He obtained his three degrees and then professorship at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Enugu State. He graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 1984, an MSc Economics in 1987, and a PhD in 1989, winning prizes for the best student at all three levels.
He has been trained and involved in research, teaching, and auditing in such disciplines as multi-country macro-econometric modelling, techniques of computable general equilibrium modelling, survey methodology, and panel data econometrics, among others. He studied and taught these courses at many universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, and Warwick. Soludo has co-authored, co-edited, and authored a number of books on this subject matter.
In 1998, He was appointed to the position of professor of economics at the University of Nigeria; the next year he became a visiting professor at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA.
He has worked at the World Bank both as a short and long-term consultant since 1993 and also at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa. He was a consultant to UNCTAD; European Union (EU); Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); United Nations (UN) New York; United States Agency for International Development (USAID); African Development Bank (ADB); Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); African Union (AU); International Development Research Council
(IDRC) Canada; Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA); Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); among others.
Professor Soludo has served as Senior Technical Advisor/Consultant as well as a Visiting Scholar at the IMF since 1994, and also taught IMF’s Financial Programming and Policy course to senior staff of Central Banks in West Africa and other developing regions. He has served as: Member, Technical Committees that drafted economic and trade policies for the Federal Government of Nigeria; and Executive Director of the African Institute for Applied Economics (AlAE).
He joined the federal government in 2003,
Prior to his May 2004 appointment to the bank chairmanship, he held the positions of Chief Economic Adviser to former President Obasanjo and Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission of Nigeria.
He was the Chairman/Coordinator of the team that drafted Nigeria’s economic and social reform program (2003-2007), the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), and also pioneered the collaborative planning framework in the Nigerian federation by initiating and assisting state governments in designing their State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (SEEDS).
As Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Soludo refocused the Central Bank as an effective monetary authority and successfully implemented a fundamental restructuring which has led to unprecedented consolidation of the Nigerian banking system.
On account of this, the Nigerian banking system was rated the fastest growing in Africa and one of the fastest growing in the world. He also championed the establishment of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a continental, private -sector driven, investment bank. He promoted the Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020), the blue-print to grow Nigeria’s financial system to become Africa’s financial hub and to drive the Nigerian economy into the global league of top 20 economies by 2020. For his achievements, Professor Soludo is the recipient of scores of awards and recognitions from civil society organizations; NGOs; private sector organizations; religious groups; the Press; professional associations; student unions; universities; among others. The Financial Times of London has described him as Ita Great Reformer’. He is the winner of the ‘Global and African Central Bank Governor of the Year, in 2005, 2006 and 2007 by different international media institutions including The Banker Magazine published by the Financial Times of London.
In September 2009, Soludo announced his aspiration to run for the seat of the Governor of Anambra State, in the state’s election of 9 February 2010 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and he lost to Peter Obi.
In July 2013, he resigned from the People’s Democratic Party after writing a letter to the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. He later joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance in preparation for the November 2013 governorship race in Anambra state. In mid-August 2013, he, along with five other qualified aspirants, were disqualified by the APGA Screening Committee.
On 16th September 2019, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, appointed Soludo as a member of a newly formed 8-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) which would report directly to the President.
In February 2021, Soludo officially declared his intention to run for the position of Governor of Anambra State under the banner of APGA
