Noel K Tshiani Muadiamvita (known as Noel K. Tshiani M.) was born in Ngandajika in the Eastern Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on December 25, 1957. Based on his high profile locally and internationally, he is expected to be an independent candidate for the Congolese presidency in its forthcoming elections. Commercial, investment and development banker working as a financial economist since 1992, He has served notably at the World Bank as Country Manager and as Mission Chief for Private and Financial Sector Development. Dr. Tshiani has worked successfully to restructure and transform distressed economies in West Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. For example, his work in the Cape Verde Islands helped to increase the Gross Domestic Product per capita in twenty years from 170 to 4400 dollars in 2016. The West African country has graduated from the low to the medium income group of countries thanks to good leadership and governance, and despite its limited natural resources.
Contents
- Education
- Publications
- Political views
- Development vision Noel K Tshianis Marshall Plan for the Congo
- Testimony from Abdou Diouf Former President of Senegal
- References
Dr. Tshiani lead a team of World Bank professional experts who designed and implemented a comprehensive economic and financial transformation program for the West African Development Bank (BOAD), the Central Bank for West African States (BCEAO) as well as the eight countries forming the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU): Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The program significantly deepened the economic, financial and infrastructural integration of West African States.
Dr. Tshiani had previously worked for a decade as an International Lending Officer with JP Morgan Chase in New York; senior Credit Officer with the Republic National Bank of New York and an Account officer with Citibank N.A. He attended and successfully completed the Citibank Executive Management Training Program for lending officers held in Athens, Greece, and was an intern in the corporate and personal credit department of Banque Nationale de Paris in Grenoble, France.
As a renown economist on secondment from the World Bank, Dr. Tshiani co-chaired in 1997 the Monetary Reform Commission that designed and launched the Congolese Franc, replacing the much discredited currency of what had been Zaire. He further advised the President on strengthening the autonomy of the monetary authority, notably by dismantling the central bank board that included seven cabinet members and replacing them with independent technical experts. He is an advocate for independent central banks and believes that a well-functioning financial system is a prerequisite to ensure adequate resource allocation and support economic development. He regularly visits his country and monitors closely its economic, social and political developments and challenges.
Education
Dr. Tshiani has studied leadership and management at Harvard Business School and earned a doctorate in economics with specialization in banking and finance from the Paris Dauphine University, following an MBA in banking and financial markets from Adelphi University in New York.
Fluent in English and French, Noel K. Tshiani also earned a Specialized Higher Studies Diploma (DESS) in financial management and taxation from the University of Grenoble, a Postgraduate Diploma from the Institut Supérieur de Gestion (ISG Business School) in Paris, and a master's degree in Economics from the University of Liège in Belgium. His cum laude doctoral thesis at the Paris Dauphine University addressed the independence of central banks, accountability and impact on monetary policy.
He completed his high school with concentration in Latin and Philosophy at Institut Kalayi (formerly College Saint Georges) in Ngandajika.
Noel K. Tshiani M. completed his university program overseas on a Congolese government scholarship. Having benefited from educational assistance from the Congolese government, Dr. Tshiani advocates free and universal education for Congolese children between 6 and 17 years of age to promote social inclusion and ensure that nobody is left behind.
Publications
Dr. Tshiani is the author of five books:
1. The Force of Change: Building a country more beautiful than before (Éditions du Panthéon, Paris, April 2016);
2. Desperate times, bold measures: A Marshall Plan for the DRC (Éditions du Panthéon, Paris, April 2016);
3. The Battle for a credible national currency (De Boeck, Brussels, December 2012),";
4. Vision for a strong currency (L'Harmattan, Paris, 2008),"; and
5 Building Credible Central Banks (Palgrave MacMillan, Hampshire, UK, 2009),".
Dr. Tshiani has also published widely on development economics, private sector development, financial sector, central banking and monetary policy His work has appeared in Time Magazine, Jeune Afrique, La Libre Belgique, Le Soir, Le Potentiel, Le Phare, La Prosperité, Africa News, Sud Express International, Le Point, FinancialAfrik and others. His Time Magazine article (How to reform the Democratic Republic of the Congo) has been widely cited by scholars and major universities such as Columbia University in New York.
Political views
Dr. Tshiani has no political party affiliation, but expects to run as an independent in the next Presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A technocrat and political outsider, Dr. Tshiani believes the DR Congo has been betrayed by its own leaders for decades.
As of 2016, the DRC ranked as the poorest country in the world according to indexmundi based on the Gross Domestic Product per capita. At the same time, the country ranked near-last according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index despite abundant natural resources. He believes, based on experience, that the path to shared prosperity is rooted in good governance, integrity, rule of law, human rights, equality, and opportunity for all.
In 2003, Dr. Tshiani launched the idea that the DRC needed a Marshall Plan to address structural problems and tackle achieve poverty. In 2003 and 2004, he published two articles in Jeune Afrique: "A Marshall Plan for the DRC"" and "Desperate times, bold measures," arguing that reforms to date had failed. He now proposes a Marshall Plan lasting 15 years and requiring US $800 billion to fundamentally transform the economy and create opportunities for all. Above all, he has a unique vision to develop the DRC.
Development vision: Noel K. Tshiani's Marshall Plan for the Congo
In support of his ambitions to transform his native country and create opportunities for all its citizens, Dr. Tshiani unveiled on January 22, 2016 in a Time Magazine article, the summary of his Marshall Plan for the Congo whose details are contained in his book: La Force du Changement or the Force of Change. The 15-year plan he proposes for DRC comprises seven pillars of development, with the private sector driving growth and international and diaspora expertise tapped as needed.
The seven pillars of development consist of:
• Promoting peace, security, rule of law, and democracyby restructuring the army and police and building strong democratic institutions and transparent practices;
• Advancing human capital, through education, health, and nutrition, creating opportunity and a level playing field for all, including Congolese women, who suffer not only legal discrimination but one of the world's highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence;
• Mobilizing domestic resources through transparent, effective tax collection and anticorruption measures;
• Supporting a responsible domestic private sector backed by functioning public administration and the rule of law;
• Taking on large-scale, labor-intensive infrastructure projects to create jobs as well as desperately needed enablers of trade and growth;
• Boosting and accelerating local industrialization to refine and process minerals and mechanize farming, livestock, and fisheries; promoting sustainable forest management; and supporting service sectors including tourism; and
• Identifying and tapping domestic and regional market synergies: DRC is now a member of a 26-country regional integration arrangement that extends from South Africa to Egypt and is home to 625 million people with an estimated GDP of US$1.3 trillion.
What will this plan cost? Dr. Tshiani estimates about $800 billion over 15 years, in domestic resources, bilateral and multilateral aid, and foreign direct investment. It will also require a wholesale rethinking of development strategy and governance, with transparency a top priority. Dr. Tshiani believes that the government can finance the major portion of the plan with internally generated revenues by combatting corruption, reforming the justice system and creating an attractive business environment.
Dr. Tshiani believes that, executed wisely, his plan could turn one of the world's poorest economies into a driver of African growth and would increase the GDP per capita from its current level of 394 dollars to 15,000 in 15 years. In his own words, if his countrymen work together, "the impossible isn't Congolese".
Testimony from Abdou Diouf, Former President of Senegal
In the book "The Force of Change", His Excellency Abdou Diouf, former President of the Republic of Senegal, writes: "We met when I was President of the Republic of Senegal and he was a young expert of the World Bank. At the time, he led the World Bank team that helped the Government of Senegal to mount an exemplary debt cancellation program. With the help of this team, Senegal eliminated all of its commercial and banking external debt…. This operation allowed Senegal to clean up its financial position and come into line with its banking and commercial creditors, a requirement of international rating agencies such as Fitch, Moody's and S&P. Senegal has thus recovered its financial credibility by implementing a rigorous program of economic reforms in which Dr. Tshiani actively and brilliantly participated. I was very proud to see an African with such sharp expertise dedicate himself to developing Africa."