Emile Pierre Basenda Motanda

Emile Motanda is a PhD Economics Researcher with broad experience in financial administration and project management in Africa.

He worked as a Country Finance Officer for nine years at The Marist Brothers-DRC and as a member of the Board of Management for the Africa-Central-East Region (including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Central Africa Republic and the D.R Congo) for two years. Emile has 9+ years of experience managing financial resources and coordinating development projects in DR Congo, leading management teams of up to 150. Emile played a significant role in promoting microfinance institutions in the DRC. He was the Vice-chairman of the Mutuelle d’Epargne et de Credit du Congo (MECRE) and is a member of the Board of Directors of  Societé de Microfinance  SMF Guilgal,SA. Emile is passionate about quantitative data. He worked as a Data analyst at SOAS and his currently the Data Officer at Family Action - UK.

Emile also worked as an Assistant Lecturer in Economics at Pan African University of Congo and Marist University of Congo. He holds an MSc in Microfinance (Protestant University of Congo), an MSc in Accounting and Finance  (University of Salford-Manchester) and an MSc in Economics (SOAS, University of London). Emile has exemplary academic performance and leadership skills. He is a 3rd Year PhD Researcher at SOAS researching the Informal Economy and informal firms’ productive efficiency in the DRC. His work investigates the dynamics of informality and its causal effects on firms’ productivity in the context of state fragility and institutional asymmetry.

His research areas include development economics, applied microeconomics, Small Business Economics, the informal economy, informal taxation, Institutions and Political economy.  In his free time, Emile likes travelling, going to cinemas and developing his coding skills.

• Informal Economy
• Microeconomics
• Political economy of development
• Taxation and Institutions