School of Economics

Job Title/Academic rank :
Lecturer
School :
School of Economics
Phone Number :
(+250)783154191
E-mail :
j.nkurunziza@ur.ac.rw
Biography :
Dr. Joseph Nkurunziza is a social science Researcher with a broad interest in economics, policy analysis and development planning. He did his BSc. degree in economics at the former National University of Rwanda. After that, he worked as a Bank Manager at Bank’s People at its Branch of Kacyiru (Kigali-Rwanda) before joining the National University of Rwanda as Assistant Lecturer in Department of Economics in December 2002. After his MSc studies in applied statistics at Institut de Statistiques of Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, he was enrolled in July 2009 in PhD studies at International Development Studies, Utrecht University in The Netherlands. He worked with Population, Reproductive Health and Economic Development (PopDev) project. He analyzed Rwandan Policy on education, social security and rural development. The development of Human capital is a policy priority for the Government of Rwanda. Joseph Nkurunziza found that policies aimed at poverty reduction and rural development contribute to the willingness of parents to invest in education of their children. The presence of formal paid work at the district level has had a positive impact, confirming that labor market factors are important when deciding whether to allow children to follow education.

During his academic career, Joseph Nkurunziza has lectured in Departments of Economics and in department of Applied Statistics on History of Economic thought, Quantitative methods on policy analysis, sampling methods, inferential statistics, mathematics for economics, intermediate economics, advanced Economics, managerial economics, and operations research. In addition to his teaching duties, he has been active in a variety of administrative position at University level and in other institutions : Vice-dean, Academic Secretary, NPT-053 Project Coordinator, Coordinator of Evening program, Chairperson of Board of Directors of Caisse d’Entraide de Butare, Board member of Imanzi Investment Company Ltd, Board member of Ecole Internationale des Parents de Butare (EIPB). He participated in various conferences and consultancies related to development planning.

Areas of Research interest :

1. Poverty and inequalities ;

2. Policy analysis and development planning ;

3. Economics of education ;

4. Development studies ;

5. Social protection policies ;

6. Human Capital development

Publications :

Nkurunziza, J., Broekhuis, A. and Pieter Hooimeijer, P., 2012. Free Education in Rwanda : Just one step towards reducing gender and sibling inequalities. Hindawi Publishing Corporation, Education Research International 2012. Doi:10.1155/2012/396019. ISSN : 2090-4010.
Nkurunziza, J., Broekhuis, A. and Pieter Hooimeijer, P., 2015. “Do Poverty Reduction programmes Foster Education Expenditure ? New Evidence from Rwanda”. SAGE publication, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 52(4) : 425-443, Doi : 10.1177/0021909615595988.
Nkurunziza, J., 2015. Human Capital Development in Rwanda : Effect of education, social Protection and Rural Development Policies. ISBN : 978-90-6266-412-2. PhD Thesis, Utrecht University.
Nkurunziza, J., Broekhuis, A. and Hooimeijer, P., 2017. “Sibling and gender effects on youngsters’ second chance to complete primary education in Rwanda”. Journal of Population and Social studies, 25(1), 26-42, DOI : 10.14456/jpss.2017.3
More details :

Phone : (+250) 788321816/728154191

Email : nkurunzizaj@gmail.com

ORCID : 0000-0002-8685-9806