- Safiu Kehinde
The keynote speaker for the 12th Realnews Anniversary Lecture, Karim El Aynaoui, has arrived in Lagos ahead of the event slated to hold on Tuesday, November 19, 2024.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by Realnews Publisher, Maureen Chigbo on Monday.
According to the statement, the Executive President of the Policy Center for the New South, in Rabat, Morocco, arrived aboard Air Maroc.
El Aynaoui was accompanied by Abdelhak Bassou, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Rabat, Morocco.
He is also the Executive Vice-President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and Dean of its Humanities, Economics and Social Sciences Cluster.
A team of Realnews Magazine and Publication officials led by the publisher, was at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport to receive them.
The Realnews Lecture, which has held consecutively for 11 years beginning from 2014 will centre on “Africa in world shifting geopolitics, matters arising on democracy, technology, artificial intelligence, natural resources” and will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, Lagos.
El Aynaoui’s contributions at the Policy Center for the New South, pcns, a Moroccan Think Tank that works to improve social and economic public policies in Africa and the Global South makes him a perfect fit for this year’s theme.
He is an economist. From 2005 to 2012, he worked at the Central Bank of Morocco where he held the position of director of economics, statistics, and international relations.
At the Central Bank of Morocco, he was in charge of the research department and equally a member of the governor’s cabinet. Previously, he worked for eight years at the World Bank as an economist for its regional units of the Middle East and North Africa and Africa.
El Aynaoui has published books and journal articles on macroeconomic issues in developing countries. His recent research has been focused on growth and the labour market in Morocco, as well as on reforming international development economy.
EL Aynaoui holds scientific and advisory positions at various institutions. He is currently a member of the Malabo Montpellier Panel, the scientific committee of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, the scientific council of the Moroccan Capital Market Authority, the International Board of Leonardo Medor Foundation, the advisory council of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy of the American University of Cairo, Morocco’s Chapter of the Confrérie des Compagnons de Gutenberg. He serves as advisor to the CEO and Chairman of OCP Group and is a board member of OCP Foundation.
He holds a Phd in economics from the University of Bordeaux in France where he taught courses in statistics and economics for three years and he is also a Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Realnews, a general interest magazine, is an online publication that thrives on investigative journalism with expertise in reporting the oil and gas sector with its attendant environmental challenges.
According to the publisher, the media outlet aims to unearth exclusive stories about real people and the challenges they face in their day-to-day activities.