Charles Okeahalam has a distinguished background in the academia and business world. He was once Professor of Financial Economics and Banking at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa where he held the Donald Gordon Professorship of Banking and the Liberty Life Professorship of Finance and Investment.
He has contributed extensively to a range of banking, finance and development issuesin Africa, including infrastructure project finance, development of bank regulation, PPP and BOOT projects, Capital Market development, promotion of Corporate and Sovereign ratings, Public Sector reforms, competition, restructuring of National and Regional development finance institutions and the SMME factor. In this regard, he has led and managed large professional teams on a number of major projects in several countries in Africa.

He is the author of approximately 50 (fifty) research papers in Economics, Finance and Banking. In recognition of this, Charles Okehalam is the first African to be awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Houblon-Norman Fund of the Bank of England for distinguished research contribution to the field of Economics, Banking and Finance in 2000.
He has served as an advisor to a number of Central Banks, Ministries of Finance, ECA,

The World Bank and the United Nations. He is a Non-Executive Director of ABSA Corporate and Merchant Bank, South Africa and National Discount House, Zimbabwe and serves on the committees of the Financial Markets Trust and the Africa Capacity Building Foundation.

He has two Masters degrees in Economics and Finance, and a Phd in Econometrics from the University of London and has worked in several countries including Britain, Botswana, Gabon, Namibia and Tanzania