Dr Asanda Fotoyi

Dr Asanda Fotoyi is a lecturer and academic coordinator in the Department of Economics. Her PhD (Economics) thesis assessed the economic impact of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) grant funding in the Eastern Cape, using cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and least absolute deviation (LAD) regression analysis. She holds a MCom (Economics), BCom Honours (Economics), and BCom (Accounting and Economics). She is also an alumni of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI), and is one of five scholars who took part in the TMALI Emerging Thought Leaders programme in 2013/14.

Dr Fotoyi previously worked as an Economist at Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) supporting economic policy development through research, data analysis, and engagement. She also worked as an Assistant Economist in National Accounts and Economic Analysis at Statistics South Africa (StatsSA).

In 2019, she completed the Structural Transformation and Industrial Policy short course, through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Virtual Institute.  In 2018, she participated in the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE) offered by Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) with the support of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). In 2017, she was a laureate in the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) session of its Democratic Governance Institute. In 2014, she was a scholar in the Decoloniality Summer School at the College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa (UNISA).