UNDP Nigeria gets new Country Director

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nigeria received its new Country Director, Samuel Bwalya, who began his tour of duty on Monday June 12, 2017. As Country Director, working under the delegated authority of the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Samuel will assume responsibility and accountability for, and day-to-day management of all operational and programmatic activities of UNDP Nigeria.
A post on the UNDP Nigeria twitter handle on Wednesday June 14, 2917 said before coming to Nigeria, Samuel served as Country Director for UNDP in Ethiopia.
Samuel stated his UN career as an Economic Advisor in UNDP Ethiopia Country Office in 2011 before he was later appointed as Country Director for the same office in June 2013. He served in this capacity up until his deployment to Nigeria.
While in Ethiopia, Samuel spearheaded and led the formulation and implementation of key transformative and flagship programs in the area of environment and climate change, recovery and resilience building, forest sector development program, political and economic governance (including election support and support to democratic institutions programs) and poverty reduction and economic growth initiatives including UNDP flagship programs on agricultural transformation, entrepreneurship and private sector development, industrialization and agro-industrial parks initiatives among others.
Prior to joining the UN, Samuel was Director for corporate planning and research at the Zambia Revenue Authority (2006-2011) where he led tax and customs modernization initiatives and anchored delivery of tax policy advise to government on mining tax regimes and reforms. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines-Investment Holding (ZCCM-IH) and chaired its Audit Committee; he was also a member of the International Centre for taxation and development at Sussex University and a member of the African Economic Research Consortium. From 1998-2006, Samuel was a lecturer of economics at The University of Zambia.
Samuel has wide experience in economic management and international development and has conducted research in several fields of the economics, political economy, taxation and tax administration systems, and on environment and natural resource management. His recent works include publications on comparative tax administration systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, forest economics, political economy (lobbying) of budgeting, fiscal strategies for growth and prosperity, and foreign direct investment and technology spill-overs in the manufacturing sector.

Samuel Bwalya holds a PhD Degree in Economics from the University of Rhode Island (USA) and Masters and Bachelors degrees in Economics from Addis Ababa University and The University of Zambia respectively.