PROF. ICHOKU, HYACINTH

Rev Fr Professor Hyacinth Eme Ichoku is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, Anambra State, and a Professor of Development Microeconomics with primary interest in Health Economics. Until his appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of Veritas University Abuja in 2018, he was a Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) where he thought Microeconomics, Econometrics and Public Finance. His academic training started with degrees in Philosophy and Divinity in 1984 and 1988, respectively. After serving as the Finance Administrator in the Catholic Institute of West Africa (1989-1992) he went to study Economics at the University of Nigeria Nsukka where he obtained a BSc degree in Economics in 1998. He was awarded the Scholarship of the Government of Sweden (SIDA fellowship) to do his Master’s Degree at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) in 1999 where he graduated with Distinction in Dissertation in year 2000 and enrolled for his PhD in 2002 before he was recalled to take up teaching appointment in the Department of Economics, UNN. He combined this lecturing assignment in UNN with his PhD Research at the University of Cape until he was awarded a PhD in 2006 when returned fully to Nigeria.

Between 2003 and 2012 he combined intensive classroom teaching and extensive research for which he was awarded several international research grants including research grants from IDRC Canada, World Health Organization (WHO), National Research Foundation of South Africa, and African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Nairobi which sponsored his PhD field research. He also published over 40 papers in international peer reviewed journals in the fields of health economics and general development microeconomics. For his contributions to his field of research interest he was promoted to the rank of Professor by the UNN Governing Council with effect from 2012.

Rev Professor Ichoku has had a wide range of field experience from consultancies undertaking for several international organizations including World Bank, USAID, DFID, EU, WHO, IDRC, Results for Development (USA), Apt Associates among others.

He has served as PhD Examiner to University of Cape Town (South Africa), North West University (South Africa), University of Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Awka) among others. He led an international accreditation team to University of Technology Namibia, and was a member of international accreditation to St Augustine College, Johannesburg.

Apart from his regular teaching and research Rev Prof Ichoku also served the University of Nigeria Nsukka in several capacities and chaired over 10 Committees of the University. He was the Director of Academic Planning of the University from 2011 to 2014 and the Director of Institute of Maritime Studies from 2014 to 2018. It was while still serving in this capacity that he was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of Veritas University in September 2018.