Kingsley Moghalu

Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has been appointed Professor of Practice in International Business and Public Policy for the 2015-2016 academic year. Dr. Moghalu is the President and Founder of Sogato Strategies, an emerging markets strategy and risk advisory firm, a Partner in the U.S. law firm Cooke Robotham LLP, and an alumnus of The Fletcher School. He will return to Fletcher to teach a course on emerging Africa in the world economy, participate in public events and private engagements with faculty and students, and support research into emerging markets as a force in the global economy in connection with the School’s Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC). During his five-year term at the central bank from 2009 to 2014, Dr. Moghalu led the implementation of far-reaching reforms to Nigeria’s banking sector after the global financial crisis as Deputy Governor for Financial Stability. He is the author of four books including the acclaimed “Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s ‘Last Frontier’ Can Prosper and Matter” (Penguin Books, 2014) and a forthcoming book on global banking reform. His prior experience also includes prominent positions in the United Nations and the private sector. () Mr Moghalu, who took his PHD at the London School of Economics and is the son of a Nigerian diplomat to Washington DC, is one of three deputy governors of the central bank and said he had no plans to resign. He vehemently denied being under investigation himself, or being accused of any wrongdoing by the report into Mr Sanusi, although newspapers in Nigeria citing the document quote it as recommending the president "cause the governor and the deputy governors to cease from holding office in the CBN [Central Bank of Nigeria.]"() Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sogato Strategies LLC and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sogato Strategies has offices in the United States, Switzerland and Nigeria, and provides bespoke advisory services to business corporations and government entities on investment climate, risk and strategy, corporate governance, institutional strategy and transformation, global partnerships, and strategic communications. Dr. Moghalu obtained his Ph.D. at the London School of Economics, an M.A. from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, the LL.B. degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the International Certificate in Risk Management at the UK Institute of Risk Management in London. Prior to his service at the Central Bank of Nigeria, he worked for the United Nations for 17 years and subsequently founded Sogato Strategies S.A. in Geneva, Switzerland in 2009.

Early life

Kingsley Moghalu was born in Lagos in 1963 to Isaac Moghalu, a Nigerian Foreign Service Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mrs. Vidah Moghalu. His father, Isaac Moghalu (of blessed memory, he passed on 16 years ago) was posted abroad as a Nigerian diplomat in Geneva, Switzerland very shortly after my birth, and subsequently served in Washington DC as well. Kingsley spent his early childhood in Geneva and Washington where his family lived in the 1960s. They returned to Nigeria later that decade as a result of a political crisis in the country at the time, which later led to a civil war. The Eastern region where his family comes from (the Igbo ethnic group) attempted to secede from the Nigerian federation as the Republic of Biafra, ultimately without success and the conflict ended in January 1970. He then spent the next two decades in Nigeria, obtaining a law degree and working as a corporate and media attorney and journalist before leaving Nigeria for graduate studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts in 1991. The American Embassy in Lagos was impressed by his admission to The Fletcher School, which is one of the top-ranked interdisciplinary global schools of international affairs. The embassy awarded him a travel grant through the US Information Agency that paid his travel expenses from Lagos to Boston. He was awarded the Joan Gillespie Fellowship by The Fletcher School. On completing his master’s degree in international relations there, he joined the United Nations Service (the UN Secretariat) in 1992 as an entry level Associate Officer. He served the UN for the next 17 years in legal, strategic planning and senior executive management roles at UN Headquarters in New York, in field operations in Cambodia, Croatia and Tanzania, and in The Global Fund in Geneva, Switzerland. In that career he rose from entry level to the highest career bracket of Director, and also served for six months on a high ranking panel on UN management reform appointed by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the political level of Under-Secretary-General. While working in the UN he obtained a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics studying part-time as an Overseas Research Scholar. His interest began to turn to the private sector and entrepreneurship afterwards, and he obtained a professional certification in enterprise risk management, which he am passionate about. he then took a carefully calculated risk. he resigned his permanent appointment in the UN system in January 2009 and founded Sogato Strategies S.A., a risk management and strategy consulting firm, in Geneva. But he was actually listening to a very clear inner voice that told him that the time had come to move on to new and different things.

Higher education

He obtained the LL.B. (Honours) degree in law at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1986, the B.L. (Barrister at Law) from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, an M.A. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, USA, and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE) at the University of London, UK. He also obtained an International Certificate in Risk Management from the Institute of Risk Management, London, UK.

United Nations

Moghalu was appointed to the United Nations Secretariat by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in May 1992. He worked for the UN for 17 years in legal affairs, strategic planning, executive management and development finance posts at duty stations in New York, Cambodia, Croatia, Tanzania, and Switzerland, rising to the rank of Director in the organization. From 2002 to 2008 he was the Head of Global Partnerships and Resource Mobilization and a member of the Risk Management Committee of the The Global Fund in Geneva, Switzerland, an international development finance organization with $20 billion in assets and a $15 billion investment portfolio in 140 countries as of 2008. He served as a member of the Global Fund's Senior Management Group, which sets corporate policy and strategy for the international public-private partnership institution. He was Legal Advisor and the Spokesman of the United Nations International Tribunal for Rwanda at Arusha, Tanzania from 1997 to 2002, and served as a Political Advisor at the UN Headquarters in New York and in UN missions in Cambodia and Croatia from 1992 to 1997.

In 2006 the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan appointed Moghalu a member of the Redesign Panel on the United Nations Internal Justice System, which undertook a comprehensive evaluation and redesign of the transparency, accountability and regulatory compliance systems within the UN as part of major management reform of the United Nations.

Post UN

The President of Nigeria appointed Moghalu as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in November 2009 following the nominee's confirmation by the Senate of Nigeria's National Assembly.

Kingsley Moghalu founded Sogato Strategies SA in January 2009. He was Executive Director of the Swiss-Africa Business Roundtable, and was a member of the Board of Directors of Opportunities Industrialization Centers International Inc. (OICI). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF).

Honours

He has been awarded several honours including the Nigerian national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (FCIB) and the Rotary International Distinguished Service Award.

Personal life

Kingsley Moghalu married Maryanne Moghalu (née Ezike) in 1994, and the couple have four children.