South Africa

Noelani King Conradie is the managing director for Oxford Economics Africa. Towards the end of 2002, Noelani decided to launch an independent economic service and founded NKC Independent Economists. The business has since grown into a team of over 30 people and in 2015 Noelani sold a majority stake in NKC to Oxford Economics. The company name was then rebranded as NKC African Economics. In September 2021, NKC African Economics decided to fully align its brand with its majority shareholder and became known as Oxford Economics Africa.

Noelani obtained her BCom (Honours) degree from the University of Pretoria, receiving distinctions for both her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Her career started in 1995 at RMB Asset Management, before she became a financial economist at Absa Corporate Bank’s treasury department. After a period in the stock-brokering arena at SG Frankel Pollak Securities, she relocated to Cape Town to start an economics department at PSG Investment Bank in 1999.

Cobus is currently the Director of Consulting at Oxford Economics Africa, previously the company’s Chief Economist for North and West Africa. Cobus completed his B.Com Econometric Analysis degree at the University of Stellenbosch, opting to also pursue a B.Com Honours in Economics at the same institution. He spent two years with GSEC, a consultancy focused on strategy realignment services in the public and private sectors, before moving to B&M Analysts as a research analyst and later project manager. During this time, Cobus completed his master’s degree and thereafter completed a D.Com in Economics at the University of South Africa. Cobus has been at Oxford Economics Africa for ten years and has managed and worked on a significant number of bespoke projects for both local and international clients, governments and multilateral institutions.

Jacques is the head of Africa Macro at Oxford Economics Africa. He manages the company’s macroeconomic subscription services. Jacques joined the company in 2013 and his research interests include risk assessment and the drivers behind development.

Jacques has an MCom in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch. He joined the company as a sovereign risk analyst in 2010, focusing on the North African region. In 2016 he took on a new role, in which he oversees our African data and forecasts. As part of this he has improved the macro models of our African countries, developed exchange rate models and conducted scenario analyses.

François Conradie is a Lead Political Economist at OE Africa. He studied a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Stellenbosch, and holds an MPhil in Futures Studies from the same university. He began his career in marketing, then spent three years in financial services in Tunisia and Morocco. He started doing analysis for OE Africa in August 2011 and was Head of Research from 2016 to 2019. In his current role he pilots research on political risk in Africa, while covering politics in North and West Africa and economics in Morocco.

Jee-A is a senior economist at Oxford Economics Africa. He began his career at COFCO International and also worked at Allan Gray. He is responsible for the macroeconomic analysis of South Africa while his insights extend to the broader Southern Africa region. Jee-A holds a master’s degree in risk management.

Pieter is a Senior Economist at Oxford Economics Africa. He joined the company in 2016 and is responsible for the macroeconomic analysis of Egypt and several other North African countries. Pieter also worked at Capital Economics, Absa, and the South African Reserve Bank during his career.

Louw is the senior political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa. He joined the company in 2020 after five years with South Africa’s official opposition party, serving as its operations director at Parliament. He has an obsessive relationship with African politics and covers South Africa and several other countries.

Theo is an economist at Oxford Economics Africa and joined the company in 2023. He is responsible for providing macroeconomic research, forecasts and analysis on several Central and Eastern African countries, while also regularly working on ad-hoc consulting projects. Theo has a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch and worked as the in-house economist for a stockbroker in Namibia before joining Oxford Economics Africa.