The untold story of Prof Ndulu and President Jakaya Kikwete

Dar es Salaam. When they first met during their days as University of Dar es Salaam students in 1972, Mr. Jakaya Kikwete and Prof Benno Ndulu had reason to admire each other, although from different view- points. Mr. Kikwete is a retired President of the United Republic of Tanzania, while the late Prof Ndulu was governor of the Bank of Tanzania from January 8, 2008 to January 7, 2018.

Ndulu died on February 22, this year. Based on their discussions, Mr. Kikwete was to discern that- Prof Ndulu would one day in the future become a prominent academic. For his part, Prof Ndulu while visualized Kikwete as a great politician sometime in the future.

“I used to tell him that he would become a prominent academic in the future and, in reaction to this, he would say that it looked as if I would become a big politician,” Mr. Kikwete said in his remarks during the panel discussion on “Reflections on Tanzania in Honor of Prof Benno Ndulu.”

The discussion was organized by the Africa House of the US- based New York University.

In his reflections, Mr. Kikwete says it was basing on the background he had for the late former BoT governor that he recommended his name for appointment as the first chairman of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) board after he (Mr Kikwete) had been appointed Finance minister by President Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

After becoming President of Tanzania in 2005, Mr. Kikwete would rush to Prof Ndulu for advice time and again in efforts to foster sound economic growth and all-inclusive development in Tanzania.

At a time when Mr. Kikwete was in dire need of distinguished economists to form his team of economic advisors, it was Prof Ndulu who recommended the name of Dr. Phillip Mpango. Dr. Mpango happened to be one of Prof Ndulu’s former Economics student at the University of Dar es Salaam in the early 1980s, and is now Tanzania’s Vice President.

With a deep trust for the kind of a person that Prof Ndulu was, Mr. Kikwete says he did not hesitate to name him as the BoT deputy governor following a request by the governor of the day, Dr. Daudi Balali, who died in the US in 2008. After the death of Dr. Balali, Mr. Kikwete says, he appointed Prof Ndulu BoT governor.

“His was one of those appointments I made during my time in office that I look back on with a great sense of pride. I have no doubt in my mind that he will be remembered as having been one of the best Governors in the history of the Bank of Tanzania,” he says.

Mr. Kikwete is proud that, throughout the period of Prof Ndulu as BoT governor, he maintained a steady GDP growth of seven percent, while inflation was trimmed to single digits, at around 6.1 percent or lower.

In Mr. Kikwete’s view, it is because of Prof Ndulu’s idea of promoting financial inclusion that Tanzanians can now freely send and receive money via mobile money platforms.

“Benno took risk and granted mobile phone companies enough space and flexibility to help with the provision of financial products and services to people who could not be reached by the traditional banking system.

The decision that Benno took led to an increase in financial inclusion from 16 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2018 when he retired,” says Mr. Kikwete.